Whabam, Power The Dark Lord Knows Not
by siriusly-im-severus
Summary: Alrighty guys, Harry's abusive family bring out something in him that no one could have anticipated. Fearing his safety, he runs away to London. Little does he know, he's got two hot strangers chasing after him. When they catch him, what will they reveal about his past and his future? Can they really train him up? And whats this about a 'power the dark lord knows not?
1. Chapter 1

SUMMARY: Harry's abusive family bring out something in him that no one expected. When he runs away, and meets two strangers, they tell him of his past and what is to come of his future. Training him for the inevitable battle at the end was never going to be easy, but with a bit of love and trust, will these two strangers become the closest thing Harry has ever had to family? And whats this about a power the dark lord knows not?

Powerful Harry. Weasley, Dumbledore bashing, mild abuse, occasional swearing, no slash atm.

GUYS, GUYS, THIS IS MY FIRST FANFIC AND I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE FOR THE CRAPPY LEVEL IT WILL BE AT :D also, i know the first chapter is short, but i will try and make the other ones longer than this

DISCLAIMER: if I fukin owned harry potter, would I friggen be writing fan fiction of it?

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*WHACK*

"HOW DARE YOU TRY AND TAKE _OUR_ FOOD, FROM _OUR _PANTRY?" Aunt Petunia screeched at Harry. The thin 9 year old had been caught taking a biscuit from the cupboard when his aunt walked in and bust into rage. "YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO TRY AND TAKE MORE WHEN WE DON'T EVEN WANT YOU HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE! WE GIVE YOU FOOD, A BED, AND CLOTHES OUT OF THE _GOODNESS OF OUR HEARTS_, AND YOU STILL TRY AND TAKE MORE! YOU PROBABLY GET IT FROM YOUR FILTHY FATHER, YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING FREAK!" Harry curled up on the floor, holding his swelling cheek, and sobbed. He didn't know Aunt Petunia had been home, and had hoped he could have gone a day without getting yelled at or beaten.

"My mummy was a good person! Just like Harry is! Harry won't ta-"

*WHACK*

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK BACK TO ME YOU FREAK" Spit was flying out of Petunia's mouth at this stage, and it was really an overreaction- the biscuit that Harry had stolen was a really shit brand that no one in the Dursley household ate anyways. The overreaction wasn't unexpected though; Harry had noticed that his beatings had increased in frequency, starting from a couple weeks ago when Dudley and he got their school grades back. Harry had gotten quite well, and earned a B, whereas Dudley had failed the class, and would have to repeat. Fortunately for him, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had 'intervened' (yelled at the teacher until she changed Dudley's grade), and Dudley was now able to move up with the rest of his friends. But since they got the marks back, everyone had been hitting and yelling at harry more. Harry now understood that he was not to outdo Dudley in anything, and he was not to draw attention to himself at school. He'd only recently just gotten out of a three day cupboard confinement, for mowing the lawn suspiciously quickly, and the only meal he'd had since getting out was a bit of lettuce and two bread end pieces.

"VERNON! COME HERE PLEASE, AND BRING THE BELT!" Harry bawled at this; he could see that he wasn't getting out of this easily. His messy hair, plastered to his face from his tears, Harry remembered how bad the beatings could get. The strange thing about his 'punishments' was that, no matter how bloody or bad they got, he was always better the next day. He almost wished he wasn't, so someone would notice and take him away.

"Aunt Petunia, _please_, I _promise_ I won't st-"

*WHACK*

"SHUTUP, FREAK"

Uncle Vernon plodded into the kitchen, with Dudley at his side and a thick leather belt in his hand. His moustache was bristling with rage, and his face was slowly turning a startling magenta colour. Dudley was grinning from behind his uncle, smirking at Harry lying on the floor. Dudley was a right prat, even at this age. He was already fat as a 16 year old boy, despite being only being 9 and a half, and Harry was astounded he had it in him to chase Harry.

"Little freak thinks he can take from us again? I guess I'll have to teach you another lesson..." Vernon said, walking towards Harry, and Petunia stepped back, making room for the following actions. Harry was ripped off the floor, and his shirt was wrestled off his back. "Bend over the bench, boy!" Vernon commanded.

Harry leaned over, his body wracked with sobs. He was so frail and skinny that you could see all the bones in his back. There were also numerous scars from previous beatings, and some were still healing. Vernon believed in violence to 'stamp it out of him', and Petunia just downright hated the boy. Dudley followed his father's actions, and enjoyed chasing harry with his friends and beating him up.

Vernon rolled up his sleeves and was just about to bring down the belt on Harry's back, when Harry turned around and held his hands up in defence.

"PLEASE UNCLE VERNON, I PROMISE I WONT DO IT AGAIN" he screamed. The belt, already on its way down, slapped harry across the face, and the boy screamed in pain. He collapsed on the floor, clutching at his face again. The boy's sobs got louder, angering Vernon further.

"IDIOT BOY, WHY DID YOU TURN AROUND? NOW PEOPLE WILL SEE THE MARKS! STUPID, JUST LIKE YOUR IDIOT PARENTS! WHY DON'T YOU GO CHUCK YOURSELF IN A CARCRASH, WHILE YOU'RE AT IT?" Vernon made to bring the belt down again on the sobbing boy, but Harry brought his hand up to deflect the blow.

Harry's face was burning from the impact of the belt, and his mind was screaming at him. '_Why do they hit me? I haven't eaten in two days, and Dudley doesn't even like that kind of biscuit! Why? WHY? THIS IS NOT MY FAULT!' _With that thought, Harry noticed the belt coming down again, and thrust his hand in the air. He wished, oh he wished that they would _stop_. He shut his eyes, waiting for the pain, but instead, felt nothing. He slowly looked up at his Uncle, only to see him, Petunia and Dudley frozen where they stood. They weren't even breathing, or blinking. Even Vernon's belt was frozen mid-whip.

Harry gasped, shock worming its way through his tiny body. '_What happened to Uncle Vernon? And Petunia? Dudley too? Did I do that? I can't have, that's impossible!'_ Harry slowly stood up, and walked up to Vernon. He reached a hand out, hesitantly, and softly jabbed Vernon in the eye. Not even a flinch. Harry gasped again, and started hyperventilating. '_DID I KILL MY FAMILY? What if the Police find out, and put me in the orphanage, like Dudley said they would? What if I get arrested and someone beats me up ever more? I HAVE TO RUN AWAY!' _

His breathing still forced and far too quick, Harry ran out of the kitchen, and burst into his cupboard. Grabbing his school bag, Harry shoved some hand-me-down Dudley clothes and a couple pounds worth of pence in. By now, his breathing had calmed down a bit, and his crying had stopped. He was more in a state of shock. Harry ran upstairs into his aunt and uncle's room, and grabbed 30 pounds out of Petunia's wallet. On the way out, Harry stopped at Dudley's room, and decided to steal all of Dudley's television remotes, as revenge for all the beating ups. Harry had a strong mischievous side, and even in his distressed state, realised that he could take full advantage of the situation. He darted into Aunt and Uncles room again, and grabbed 30 more pounds and a permanent marker.

Harry ran into the kitchen, with his backpack containing all the clothes and money (and TV remotes) on his back. He stocked some food in his bag, and walked over to stand in front of his family. Vernon, Harry noticed, had moved slightly from his original position, and was still slowly moving with the same face of pure hatred as he always had when looking at him. Harry noticed this with his other relatives too. '_Maybe I didn't kill them... Must be weird stuff, like that time I turned up on the school roof. Hopefully no one will notice me running away until they unfreeze...' _Deciding to be quick about it, Harry starting drawing on the faces of his relatives with the permanent marker. By the time he was done, all three of them had heavy eyebrows drawn on, and moustaches and beards too. Harry giggled under his breath about it as he closed the front door on his way out.

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Harry ran to the playground straight after leaving the property. He didn't want to be seen by the neighbours, in case they called the cops, so he brought his hoodie up over his hair, and pushed his fringe in front of his scar. It was the only cool thing about his appearance, in his opinion. Heaps of kids at school had scars, but none of them had a _lightning _scar. This didn't mean Harry had any friends, it just meant he had _one_ thing he liked about himself.

It was night time, and November at the time, so outside was really cold. His breath came out in puffs, as he gasped for air from running. Sitting down on the swings, Harry took the time to think about what was going to happen now.

'_Well. I've run away._

_Fuck. (He knew a lot of swear words from listening to Dudley try do his homework)_

_What the hell am I supposed to do now? I'm 9 years old, and it's like 10 o'clock! And I'm _seven_! Ugh, maybe I should just go back... NO! They'll just yell and scream at me again... _

_Bloody hell it's cold...' _Harry was shivering pretty bad at this point, and passed a hand up to brush his hair away, not noticing that everything suddenly felt a lot warmer.

He sat on the swings for a couple minutes, and finally came up with a plan. It was a pretty shit plan, but he was only 9, so it was the best he could come up with.

'_I'll catch a bus to London, and beg for a place to stay. Someone's _got_ to let me in if I give them puppy eyes... What are puppy eyes, by the way?' _With that thought in his head, Harry got up to begin his journey. He walked over to the street curb and tried to get a vague idea of which way to go. Harry lifted his hand in front of his face again, to brush his hair away, when all of a sudden a bus appeared on the street? Do buses normally do that?

The door flung open and an old man hobbled out and croaked at him with a creaky voice,

"Welcome aboard thee Knight Bus, queeck transport fer stranded witches an' wizards. How may I help yeh, child?" The man leered at Harry, noticing his slight appearance. "Aren't yew a leettle beet _youngh_ teh bee travellen by yehself?" the man asked, slipping into a wheezier voice. Harry didn't respond, as he was busy digesting the sudden appearance of the bus, and the strange look of the bus. It was a very thin three decker bus, covered in rusted bright purple paint. "THE KNIGHT BUS" was written on the side in bright red paint, and Harry could see people sitting inside the bus.

"_Child?_" the old man's voice persisted, breaking Harry's concentration. Jolting, harry met the gaze of the man. "How _old_ aree yeh? Yeh look far too young teh be around a' thiss hour? Dew yeh want me the send ah patronus teh yeh Mummeh fer yeh?"

Slowly speaking, Harry replied, "I'm nin.. I'm ten sir." Harry said, realising the man was suspicious of his age due to his thin build. "My mother and father are already waiting for me at our hotel in London. How.. how quick will it take for the bus to get there, and how much will it cost me?" Harry asked, and started pulling a couple of pounds out of his backpack. The man looked up and searched the surrounding area before answering.

"It will cost yeh 11 seeckles from heere to Londen."

'_I must have misheard that. What the heck is a seeckle?'_ Blinking, Harry asked the man again.

"Sorry, what was that? 11 seeckles? What's that?"

"A _seeckle_ meh child, a seeckle. Yeh know, teh things tha' make up Galleon,' the old man said impatiently. "Come on child, we need teh get goin' or eelse thee Muggles will notice thee boos."

Harry, finally figuring out approximately what the man was trying to tell him, held up a handful of pence and pound notes.

"Will this do? I'm afraid I haven't any seeckles or galleens on me at the moment," he said as politely as one could, in this situation. The man picked up a pound note and sighed heavily.

"Eet will dew fer now. Give me two pounds and ey'll give yeh hot chocolate and ah toothbrush of yeh choice tew."

Harry handed over two of the notes, and hopped on board the strange bus. The old man followed him on, shoving the pounds in his pocket. He tapped on the pane of glass behind the driver's seat and told the driver to head to London.

Harry walked to the back of the bus, observing the other people on the bus. Due to the late hour, the majority were sleeping or on their way. Harry noticed the strange fashion sense that they all seemed to have. Who _actually_ wore cloaks and pointy hats like that? Maybe it was a roaming freak show or something. '_You'll fit right in then, won't you_' Harry thought dryly.

A couple minutes after Harry had sat down, the old man shuffled over to him and handed him a watery cup of hot chocolate, and showed him a selection of crappy toothbrushes that he could pick from. Harry chose the green one, as green was his favourite colour. The man shuffled back to his seat at the front of the bus and left Harry alone with his thoughts and hot chocolate. Sipping it, he ignored the off putting watery taste, and pondered what London would be like. He had no plans of going back to the Dursleys anytime soon.

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**Just after Harry left, at 4 Private Drive**

A loud popping noise was heard on the front lawn of the Dursleys house, followed by a bang of a front door being flung open, and loud cursing. A strange woman wearing strange clothes, and her strange companion had just apparated onto the front lawn, and barged into the house, only to find the slowly recovering Dursleys and no Harry.

"DAMMIT! We must have missed him! If only I wasn't in the shower!" cried the woman in frustration.

"Yeah, annoying that. Although, I certainly didn't mind you being in the shower…" murmured the companion, suggestively bumping the woman's hips. The woman glared at her companion with a stony face.

"I hope you realise what's happening here, Tee. We've just missed Harry Potter, now he's run away. He could be _anywhere_ right now, and you're busy thinking about my showers," the woman said, walking around the Dursley's kitchen and examining the Muggle devices.

The companion, Tee, was examining the strange markings drawn on the faces of the frozen family.

"Hey, at least we know one thing about him," he said, ruffling Vernon's hair.

"What's that?" the woman asked, opening and closing the microwave.

"He's got a sense of humour- I mean bloody hell, what a way to leave a lasting impression," said Tee, gesturing to the moustache drawn on Petunia.

"Tee, please be _serious_ for a moment here! We need to find Harry before the Ministry or the Order, or God forbid, _Albus_, does. Where would you go if you were a young boy who's just run away?" She cried in exasperation.

Tee snickered, replying "The local girls change room, what about you?"

Slapping the upside of Tee's head, the woman stormed outside, and a loud popping noise could be heard again.

"Ah good ol' Ms, always appreciates a chuckle," Tee sighed, before wandering out and popping away too.


	2. Chapter 2- Scalding Tea

DISCLAIMER: do i put this here? oh well, I DONT OWN HARRY POTTER and this is NOT FOR PROFIT :)

(A.N) By the way guys, how long do you think each chapter should be, because im flying blind at the moment, and any help would be great!

A firm hand shook Harry awake from his fretful sleep full of flying motorbikes and flashing green lights. His bright greens eyes flew open, glancing fearfully around. The old man who ran the bus was leaning over Harry, with a look of great disinterest on his face.

"Yeh might want teh wake up, child. We're almost at thee Leakeh Cauldron," he wheezed at Harry, before wobbling away, smashing into a sleepy woman as the bus turned a corner.

Harry sat up, gathering himself from his rest, and looked out the window. It was still night, and they were whizzing through the streets of London. Sitting up straight with anticipation, Harry looked out the window. He was immediately taken with how quickly the bus was moving. He'd never been on a bus before, but he was fairly certain the outside world should be more distinguishable then coloured blurs. No matter, he picked up his tattered school bad (Dudley's hand me down, of course), and put it on. This was Harry's first time in London, and he had high expectations. He had heard great things about the big city, and honestly, anything was better than the Dursleys. He now had a more detailed plan than his previous plan, and it was basically, find a nice looking shop, and ask for a place to stay in exchange for work. He could pretend he was older than he was, if they said he was too young.

A voice called out through the bus,

"Next stop: Leaky Cauldron."

Taking this as his cue to get up, Harry made his way to the front of the bus, falling over three times as the bus turned. Holding onto a metal bar, he held on for dear life, until the bus suddenly screeched to a halt, and he was flung into the plastic pane behind the driver's seat. Picking himself up again, he nodded self-consciously at the old man, who was laughing at him, and left through the open bus doors. As the doors closed behind him, he could hear the man's laughing turn into coughing, and the bus drive away. The bus had dropped him off in front of what looked like a stingy old pub. Harry wouldn't have even noticed the pub if he hadn't stared right at it, it was so small. A dirty sign hung above the door, saying 'The Leaky Cauldron', with a picture of a bubbling cauldron.

'_Huh, cool special effects,_' Harry though, looking at the picture moving. '_Who actually uses the word 'cauldron' though, that is so… medieval. Let me go prepare my cauldron of evil witch hunting juices, mwa ha ha. Oh well, I might as well start off here._' Harry decided.

Brushing his fringe over his scar and tightening his backpack straps, he pushed open the bar door. There were several people inside, and the lights were dim. The place looked as though it hadn't been properly cleaned in several years, but it had a very well-worn feel about it. Being Harry's first time in a pub, he was quite nervous. None of the customers paid him any attention, for which Harry was glad of. They were all wearing the weird cloaks too, and one of them looked kind of like a hag.

'_Must be a late Halloween party_' he thought to himself. He walked up to what he assumed was the bar, and hopped up on a stool. The man behind the bar was cleaning a glass with a dirty rag, and turned around to face him. He had a friendly looking face, with not much hair.

"Hello there little fella? How can I help you this fine evening?" the man said good-naturedly, putting down the glass and the rag. Harry noticed that at least this man wasn't wearing a cloak, but rather, an apron and some clothes that looked like they were from at least 30 years ago.

Gulping, Harry said to the man, "Hello there, my name's Harry, and I have a proposal to make to you." This was said a lot more confidently than Harry felt, and it was quite obvious through his body language. He was positively shaking with nervousness!

The man barked a loud friendly laugh, and sat down on the other side of the bar. "Harry, is it? Well, my name is Tom, and I would love to hear your proposal." Tom had a wide grin on his face, and gave Harry his full attention.

"Alright Mr Tom, here it goes. I would like to propose that in return for my working for you-" Harry started, only to be interrupted by two very loud people walking into the bar. It was a tall woman, with a shorter but more heavily built man. The woman was grumbling about something, shaking her lengthy pale blond hair as she did, and the man was emitting strange gurgling sounds. Apparently he was laughing.

"Even if you _could_ afford a griffon, I don't think he would want to be purple Tee, be reasonable..." the tall woman grumbled loudly, earning another bout of strange gurgling noises. The pair navigated their way over to the bar, and the tall woman's eyes flicked up, making eye contact with Harry's emerald eyes. They were the palest blue eyes harry had ever seen, and he made a small noise in shock. The woman's eye widened in realisation, and quickly composed herself into a motherly form.

"HARRY, MY CHILD, WHEREVER HAVE YOU BEEN?" she cried, flinging her hands into the air and simultaneously whacking Tee on the side of the head. She rushed over to the bar and immediately crushed Harry into a tight embrace, pressing his face against her bosom. The boy in question, unused to physical contact other than being beaten up, started squirming and making loud squealing noises.

Still with harry in her arms, the lady started to make a scene, while Tee was standing on the side admiring her work.

"WHY DID YOU RUN AWAY MY CHILD, WE WERE EVER SO CONCERNED FOR YOUR WELLBEING,' she kissed his forehead, leaving a glossy mark from her lipstick. All the bar's occupants were now watching the ordeal. "My son, don't ever do that again,' *kiss*, "Alright?"

Tee wandered over to assist with the presentation.

"Tom,' he said to the confused barman, "I would like to introduce you to our child, Harry Lemon," using the predetermined procedure for taking Harry in a public place." The poor thing ran away last night, and had us in quite a tiffy looking for him." He added with a forced chuckle. "I'm sure you remember my wife, Celia?" he asked, indicating to the woman who was still grasping at the struggling Harry. Tom nodded in recognition, earning a large grin from Tee.

Tom chuckled nervously.

"Children, such trouble makers aren't they?" he offered, picking up a glass. "Would you like the usual?" he said, picking up a bottle of amber liquid.

Shaking his head, Tee supplied, "No thank you, my friend, I have business that needs attending to," looking over at Harry.

"Ah my child, you caused me grief last night, did you kno-" Celia started in a dreamy voice, patting his hair softly.

"LEMME GO" Harry burst, doubling his efforts to escape. He tried hitting the woman, but she simply ignored this.

Tee whipped out his wand and cast a quick spell on Harry, rendering him into a dreamlike state of cooperation.

"That is NO way to treat your mother Harry." Tee said firmly, as Celia started kissing Harry's forehead again. "Heh, as you can see, we have much to talk about," Tee said, addressing the whole bar now. He received a few amused laughs in reply, and seemed to deem it an appropriate answer. "Well, we must be off. Have to get back to the manor, don't we love?" He sighed, pulling Celia and the charmed boy with him. They walked out of the pub and popped away, leaving the bartender a little bit dazed and confused. The rest of the bar occupants just went back to whatever they were doing, but Tom was left thinking,

'_Haven't I seen that boy somewhere before? And were those _belt_ marks on his face?'_

Obviously, nothing came to mind when questioning himself, so Tom just went back to cleaning his glasses, and for some reason, the memory of the event disappeared from his mind.

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In a small suburban house, in Brackley, a loud pop emanated from the living room. The old couple who lived in the house, were thankfully asleep upstairs, and werent woken by the noise.

Two adults and a seemingly sedated child appeared almost on the coffee table. As soon as they appeared, they both pulled out their wands and sent stunners at him. He collapsed on the nearby couch. The woman proceeded to start warding the room with muggle repelling charms, silencing wards, notice me not, and charms that stopped anyone else from knowing their location. The shorter man went and sat down next to Harry, pushing his hair out of his eyes, revealing the lightning scar.

"It really is him, Celia,' he whispered, drawing her attention. "It's their boy, the one who can save us all."

Celia put her wand away and sat down on the other side of Harry.

"It is, Tee, it truly is. Although you do _need_ to stop referring to him as an object. At this point in time, he's just Harry, and we need to look after him until he can do what he needs to. Until then, we are just his guardians, who love him. I hope we can do him well," she said softly.

Harry moaned softly in his sleep, his eyes fluttering open momentarily, revealing his emerald irises. Tee gasped, and looked up at Celia.

"He's even got her eyes, love!" Said the shorter man, clutching at his chest.

"Yes, you can see both of them in him, and let's do our best to honour them." Tee nodded in response, and conjured a warm blanket to cover Harry.

"Let's let him rest the night, he must be tired." Both agreeing to this, they made their own sleeping arrangements and settled down for the night.

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As the next morning dawned, a small nine year old child, Harry Potter, awoke to find himself covered in a thick woollen blanket. Not complaining, since it was the warmest things he'd ever had in his life, he sat up and put the blanket to the side. Looking around, he noticed that he was in a small living room that was apparently furnished by an old couple who had never heard of interior design.

"what..?" Harry pondered out loud. He had no idea how he got here, and had no idea who the people he just noticed on the floor were. The increasingly alarming situation was suddenly cleared up when the memories of last night flooded Harry's mind. He still had no idea who the two people were, but that could be quickly fixed.

Even at age 9, Harry had endured a lot more than some adults could say. He had endured enough abuse to develop a sort of survival technique that he could use in situations he was unsure about, such as this one. His technique included working out the surroundings and possible threats, and then working out how to get out of said situation. As Harry was inspecting his current location, he also checked out the two people sleeping on the floor.

Sharing the same inflated mattress, Celia and Tee, were kinda locked in a half cuddle-half fighting position. Tee, Harry saw, was shorter than the woman, but looked like he was better at close combat, and Harry was wary of him. He had curly chocolatey brown hair that reached his eyebrows and his irises were a sad grey colour that made you want to hug him until he felt happy. Harry got the impression, though, that the man was a charismatic fellow, and wasnt much of a threat. He moved on.

Celia, on the other hand, was tall and lovely. She was the kind of woman that made you look twice in the street. Her hair was like the pale moonlight shining on a yellow flower, and was softly curled, even without using products or magic. Her eyes were also pale and striking, being the palest blue Harry had ever seen. Her light skin combined with her other startling features made Harry think that she was some sort of ethreal creature who had come and whisped him away. Harry was too captured by her beauty to think she was a threat (even though in nature, a lot of animals or plants use awesome appearances to either warn other creatures of their dangerous potential, or entice them to come to them, so that they can be killed).

Shaking his head to get out of his reverie, Harry moved away, having decided that these people were no more a threat to him, than your usual kidnappers. Phase two of his survival technique was the next bit. Harry needed to get away, as quickly and quietly as possible. Grabbing his backpack, he moved towards the door and grasped the handled, to turn it, only to suddenly feel an immense burning feeling in his hand.

"OUCH, WHAT THE HECK?" He screamed, letting go of the handle and clutching his hand to his chest in pain.

Both the adults bolted awake up off the floor, with their wands out. They had defensive stances on, and Harry instantly felt threatened.

"Harry!" Celia cried in exasperation, lowering her wand. "Dont scare us like that, we thought you were an intruder!" Tee lowered his wand too, and started packing up the mattress as Celia moved to embrace Harry.

Backing away quickly, Harry grabbed the nearest object to him as a potential weapon. The tissue box in his hand was not intimidating in the slightest to Celia, who looked at him suspiciously.

"Harry, please, be polite, we are only trying to help you," she reprimanded.

"Who _are_ you? And why did you capture me? WHERE AM I?" Harry yelled, his voice breaking at the last bit.

Celia and Tee stepped back, looking at him critically.

"My child, we-" She started,

"STOP CALLING ME THAT"

Sighing, she started again,

"Alright, _Harry_,' Celia patiently said, "We are here to help you. I apologise for how we acted last night, but it was neccessary to get you away before anyone recognised you and told someone."

Tee took over, feeling that they should just get straight into it.

"Harry, we were friends of your parents... Lily and James?" he asked, hopefully. He was trying to see how much harry knew, and how much he and Celia had to work with.

"My parents didnt HAVE any friends!" Harry said, waving the tissue box threateningly. "Uncle Vernon said they were no good drunks, who lived on drugs and alcohol! They were NO GOOD FREAKS"

This statement caused Celia and Tee to both gasp, in surprise and regret. Tee made to move closer to Harry, to inspect the red welt mark on his cheek, but Harry seeing this as a move to hurt him, threw the tissue box at him.

"HARRY!" Celia yelled, "PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO US!"

Harry thought about it for a second, and seeing that this situation couldnt get too much worse, nodded in submission. He really did want to know what the hell was going on.

"Okay, thats better!" Tee sighed in relief, and sitting down on the couch, gesturing for the others to join him. He conjured up a tray of tea and biscuits, causing Harry to scream in surprise, and Celia to make a disapproving noise. Tee decided to address the elephant in the room, and tell Harry about the _world_.

"Okay, first things first. What do you know about magic?"

**A.N**: I dont really want to repeat the whole magic introductory speech, because they occur in EVERY fanfiction, so lets just pretend that the whole _YER A WIZARD HARREH _thing has just happened.

Tee sipped his tea (heheheh puns), and motioned for Celia to continue the conversation. She turned to face the dumbstruck boy, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Harry, we know this is hard to believe, and that you are only nine, but everything we've just told you is true. Magic DOES exist, in its good and bad forms, and there ARE bad people out there, who will use it against you. We," she said, pointing to the man who had just scalded his tongue on burning liquids, "hope to be able to help you in a way so that you are prepared to face these dangerous people, and inevitably change the wizarding world as we know it."

This was quite a full on sentence, and Harry had loads of questions.

"What do you mean there are bad people? And what do you mean you'll help me? How do i 'change the wizarding world'?"

Celia leaned back, taking her hand off of him, and counted off her fingers.

"One, there are people who use magic for their own personal gain, even if it means harming and destroying the livelihoods of others. We can teach you about these people if you want.  
Two, there is a lot that a young learning wizard needs to know before he can face the world. YOU, have been thrust into it blind, and it is OUR duty to train you up so that you dont embarrass yourself when you get to Hogwarts. When we say training, we mean like, teaching you the social norms of wizarding life, training you the basics of offensive, defensive, and just general spells, and why not a bit of theory. This is all very necessary Harry. We know what you did to your family," she said, earning a guilty gulp from Harry and an appreciative smirk from Tee, "and I can tell you right now, that most nine year olds arent able to do accidental magic that can freeze a family of three AND the occupants of the two houses next door for over 12 hours." She looked at Harry, almost impressed.**  
**

"You will be a very powerful wizard one day Harry. Celia and I just want you.. give you a little boost on the way," Tee said, smiling warmly at Harry. Having calmed down, Harry was processing this all nodded in appreciation.

"Okay, i think i get that all. What did you mean though, when you said i could change the wizarding world?" he asked, looking at Celia curiously.

Looking a little uncomfortable, she launched into the story about Lord Voldemort and how his hold on the world was dictating everything. About how his lackies, the Death Eaters, had killed many a family, and were destroying everything. She explained their hate for muggles and sometimes even half bloods, and would often enjoy killing them as a sport. By the end of the little speech, Harry was dry retching a little bit.

"How can I do anything about that?" He cried incredulously.

Tee decided to tell Harry this time.

"Harry, there is a prophecy. And it is a very important prophecy. Its about you, and Lord Voldemort." he made a noise of distaste at the mention of that man.  
"This prophecy tells of a child, born under the exact same situations that you were, who has the power to take down the dark lord, and essentially save us all. THis is going to sound a little tough to hear, but its true. The prophecy also says, that none shall live while the other survives, or something like that. Harry, you NEED to believe us when we tell you this, you are the _only one_ who can finish him." he said grimly.

Celia interrupted,  
"Harry, we dont want to have to thrust this upon a nine year old, but theres really nothing we can do to change it, apart from guide and help you as much as possible. We can teach you old magics, and train you to do things beyond your imagination. All we need is your trust and willingness." She took Tee's hand and looked Harry in the eyes, capturing his gaze.

There was a moment of silence, before Harry said,  
"Please, I need all the help I can get."


	3. Chapter 3- Ugh glitches

A.N/ Fuck it, sorry there have been a few technical errors while uploading this. Please review, ive tried to make it longer this time

Disclaimer: do I have to do one of these PER chapter? Oh well, I don't own harry potter, non profit, written for personal enjoyment and such.

Albus Dumbledore prided himself on many things, such as his numerous titles, and being on the chocolate frog cards. In his personal opinion, there was nothing better than eating a chocolate frog and seeing himself grinning at him whilst he did it. It gave him a sense of satisfaction that almost nothing else did. Well, apart from knowing that one day Harry Potter would lead him to another victory against a Dark Lord! He'd already got it all planned out, you see.

Harry would come to Hogwarts lost and confused, and the _gracious_ Dumbledore would provide a caring grandfatherly figure. Harry would then proceed to go through his education, defeating Voldemort numerous times, all while trusting Dumbledore and gaining the publics respect and love. THEN, and this was the good bit, Dumbledore would _personally_ 'train' (completely misguide and confuse) Harry, and send him off on a wild goose chase, while Dumbley D was off getting rid of Horcruxes. Harry would go off, and attempt to defeat Voldemort, only to tragically fail and get himself killed. THIS is where Albus Dumbledore would step in and finish off ol' Voldesnorts, and while _tragically_ mourning the loss of a 'saviour', collect the gratitude and respect of the nation, once again being the dominant figure of wizarding society.

Ah, Albus couldn't wait until the boy finally arrived at Hogwarts to put his plan into action. Victory would be sweet, once again.

He was lying back in his chair, in his office at Hogwarts, when suddenly there was a loud banging sound emitted from his desks and draws, and every single device he had trained on Harry started going off. Some even started breaking due to the strain.

Awakening from his fantasies, Albus looked around his room in shock and dismay. Quickly uttering a spell, all the devices quietened, par one. He picked it up, and started whispering something to it. Moaning in alarm, he watched as several strange symbols appeared on the surface of the device, forming some sort of runic sentance.

"Dammit Harry," he muttered. Throwing it away, Albus rushed over to his fireplace, and chucked some power in. The flames turned green, and Albus yelled out,

"Severus Snape!"

After a short moment, a greasy haired sallow man's head appeared in the fireplace, grimacing at the sight of the distressed headmaster. Snape had been in the middle of conducting a very demanding experiment (cooking dinner), and was irritated, to say the least, to be interrupted by the babbling man once again.

"How may I be of assistance?" the man drawled, picking at some unidentified residue clinging to his robes. The headmaster, pacing around his room in nervousness burst out,

"Severus, this is vitally important that you don't speak a word of this to anyone apart from those I say, is that understood?" Albus said, crouching infront of the fire, and almost singeing his beard.

"Yes headmaster, I-"

"HARRY HAS GONE MISSING FROM PRIVATE DRIVE" Albus burst, interrupting the man.

Looking distastefully at the jittery elder, Snape sighed. Albus never quite realised the depth of how much he hated James Potter and all his spawn.

"I expect the brat ran away because he was denied dessert or something of the sort," he answered. Waving his hands frantically, Albus emitted a squealing noise.

"But what if someone found out about how he's being treated and took him away? It is _crucial_ that Harry stay at his aunts house, or else the plan... plan.. Or else, someone might kidnap him!" He almost yelled, catching himself before he revealed too much.

Snape sighed in impatience.

"Well bloody well go look for him Albus, I couldn't give a Flobberworms nipple about the child, he's probably just like his father! Spoilt... Insufferable...Albus, I wish to play no part in the child's upbringing, except for what is absolutely necessary," he finished firmly, and started moving away from the fireplace.

"Severus, wait!" The potions master sighed, and moved back to the fire.

"What, headmaster?" he drawled.

Albus thought for a moment, twirling his charred beard, before deciding.

"Severus, I am going to go find the child. Please make Minervra aware of what is happening, and that I may be absent for a time."

Snape gave a curt nod, and moved away from the fire, to finish his 'experiment'.

Closing the fire connection, Albus rushed over to his desk in a rather ungraceful manner, earning a look of disgust from Fawkes. The bird had been rather rude lately, Albus thought as an afterthought. No matter, he would dru- _deal with_, he corrected himself, deal with the bird later.

Scrambling up to his desk, he yanked open one of the draws and searched through the number of vials stored there. Picking out one filled with dark red liquid and labelled 'Harry Potter', he closed the draw and pulled a strange device out of his inner pocket. His 'Locate-You-Later', named by yours truly, was an invention that, when filled with a small sample of blood, could locate the intended target anywhere in the world. Even if it was only a prototype at the moment, he was sure that it would work this time, because Albus Dumbledore never makes mistakes. Dumbledore would have sold it to people, but the use of blood would tarnish his reputation of being a leader of the light.

Albus poured a little of the blood from Harry's vial into the compartment on the Locate-You-Later, and tapped the device, with the tip of his wand. His eyes bulging in badly contained anticipation, Albus watched the device with intense concentration. It started to give off a pale green glow, and suddenly coughed and died. Aghast at one of his own personal inventions not working, he started shaking it up and down in down in anger. The only reaction he got was the blood falling out, and staining his brand new robes.

Yelling in anger, Albus shook the device even harder, unaware of his office door opening. A shocked Minerva McGonagall coughed loudly at the sight of the old headmaster bent over behind his desk shaking his hand furiously up and down.

The headmaster looked up in surprise at the interruption by his deputy.

"Albus, I heard you yelling, and things crashing, so I came and checked. But if you want some time alone to..." she started uncomfortably.

Albus caught on quickly, and looked in horror at the device in his and Minerva.

"Oh no, Min- No, this isn't... It's.." He sputtered, showing her the device covered in red liquid.

"Maybe you should go to the hospital wing Albus..." she said, with a look of great concern on her face. Moving towards the door, she was startled when Albus all but yelled,

"HARRY HAS GONE MISSING, Minerva." A grim feeling of despair seeped into her gut, and she whipped around, running up to the headmasters desk.

"What? When did you find this out? Could it be the Death Eaters? Or even You-Know-Who? I thought you said he was saf-"? She demanded, frantic with concern.

"Please, just let me explain," he said, forcing his face into one of relaxed but concerned grandfatherly patience. The professor calmed herself, and nodded. She sat down in the chair opposite the headmaster.

Quickly cleaning his robes with a charm, Albus put the device down, and started.

"I was going about my daily important things, such as donating to orphanages and thinking of ways to better the universe,' he said in what he thought was an impressive manner. Minerva scoffed internally, but kept the look of firm concern on her face.

"When all of a sudden, every device I have trained on Harry and the house wards started banging and such! Alarmed, but still in complete control of the situation, I calmly contacted Severus alerting him of the problem, and decided on how to go about handling the situation," Albus said, jumping in his seat with excitement at retelling his exciting story.

"Being the collected genius that I am, it wasn't hard to come to the conclusion to bravely go after Harry and his possible captors myself! Sacrificing my own safety is the least I could do, Minerva!" Albus said, banging his fist on the table to emphasise. The woman had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes at the old wizard.

"I was just in the middle of fixing my tracking device, when YOU came in," he said, smiling genially at the woman, and even throwing in a bit of an eye twinkle.

"It didn't look like you were fixing it..." Minerva said uncertainly.

"Of course I was, my dear woman, I knew exactly what I was doing, and now I shall go find Harry," Albus said, standing up.

Still very distraught, Minerva made to ask to join Albus in his efforts, but unfortunately didn't see Albus subtly flick his wand at her.

All feelings of concern and doubt for Harry and the headmaster left her mind, leaving her feeling like she should be doing something else right now. Something like painting her office walls vibrant green.

"Ah, Albus, I'm sure you have everything under control," she sighed, getting up and walking over to the door.

"Why, yes, yes I do." Albus grinned, as the transfigurations teacher bumped into a couple of bookshelves. As the teacher left the room, he flicked his wand at the door, locking it, and the falsely cheery grin left his face.

Muttering in irritation about being delayed, Albus picked up the blood covered device and poked at it with his wand, only to have blood flung at his face. Grumbling loudly, he wandered over to one of his older trunks, and opened it, taking out a small golden compass. Flipping it over, Albus opened up the back and poured some blood from Harry's vial into the compartment. Turning the compass back over, he looked at the small arrow pointing South, and pocketed it.

Opening another trunk, Albus took out an old broomstick, and wandered over to his window. He promptly opened it, and jumped out, landing on the broom. Using the compass meant that he had to manually seek out Potter and this meant it would be a long night for Albus. Mumbling about stupid children and inevitable death, he set on his way, flying off into the night.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

_Brackley, the next morning_

Back in the small house in Brackley, Celia, Tee, and Harry had finished their tea (Tee had had several cups, and had used a charm to heal his burnt mouth), and had been talking about the threats in their world, such as Death Eaters. Celia had pointed out that they should get moving before someone located them, and so they were starting to take down all the wards, and finishing packing up.

"Celia," Harry asked tentatively.

"Yes my child?" the woman asked, still focusing on the task.

"Are you and Tee actually married?" He had been curious about this all night, as their relationship was nothing like Aunt Petunia's and Uncle Vernon's. This was the only example of marriage he had ever seen, and he was thankful that Celia and Tee were nothing like his relatives.

Celia and Tee shared a look at this, and both of them started laughing. Celia's tinkling fairy laugh and Tee's gurgling noise made for a strange combination, Harry thought.

Recovering, Celia replied, "No Harry, we aren't. We're just good friends, and Tee's just got a dirty mind." Harry noticed Tee looked a little wistful at this, but went back to working anyways.

A couple of minutes later, all the spells and charms were undone and they were set to go.

"Now Harry, do you want to go to our home first, so you can drop everything off, or do you want to go shopping? Because Merlin knows you need a new wardrobe... and a hearty meal..." Tee asked thoughtfully eying Harry's oversized rags and hand-me-down backpack.

Thinking for a minute, Harry's tummy made the decision for him when it loudly growled.

"Shopping and food first please" he said, nervously. "If..if that's alright, of course."

Harry wasn't exactly used to people being nice to him, so getting new clothes and food was a new experience. He was quickly warming up to the two adults though, and this was something they were grateful for. Perhaps Harry was just desperate for affection. Either way, it worked out quite well, as Celia decided they were to go to Diagon Alley for their purchases. They would need disguises though, as Harry Potter suddenly arriving prematurely back into the wizarding world would probably cause unnecessary issues.

Harry was handed a ring by Celia, and looked at it appreciatively. This was the first thing he had received that was _his_, and he thought it was quite grand. The ring was made of silver, and had small emeralds forming the letters H.P. on it. It surprisingly fit Harry's fingers exactly.

"Harry that is a disguise ring. They're quite hard to come by, so please look after it, and don't tell anyone you have one. They also may or may not be illegal." Celia explained. She took out one of her own, as did Tee, and they both put them on. After a second, both of the adults changed their appearances. Before him, stood a tall thin man with thinning grey hair, still in Tee's clothes, and a shorter older woman with curly brown hair. Their eyes stayed the same, but Harry was too busy marvelling to care.

"Woah! That's amazing! Can my ring do that too?" He asked, eagerly shoving it on his left index finger.

"Harry, wait-" Tee started urgently, but Harry had already changed into an exact replica of what Tee usually looked like. Laughing like crazy, Harry ran around the living room waving an imaginary wand.

Celia gave an amused smirk, and lifted 'Tee' off his feet the next time he ran past her. Kissing him on the forehead she put him down, not hearing Tee mutter something about wishing she kissed him too.

Grinning madly, Harry changed back to his original form.

"Harry, let me explain the rings to you before you go running around crazy again, alright?" Celia said good naturedly. Harry nodded quickly, enjoying this.

"Alright, so, the rings allow you to change your outer appearance. To change your appearance, as you already know, just picture the intended appearance in your head.'

"Unfortunately, you can only change into people you've already seen, so no random creations. TRY not to change into anyone notable, otherwise people might notice," she said, thinking of anything she left out.

"OH, the disguises are powered by your own magic, and can only last as long as you can, so because you're quite young, I would recommend stopping the disguise after an hour or two. Using the rings is very draining, and I don't want you passing out from magical exhaust, okay?" she asked, patting harry's crazy hair. He nodded again.

"Oh, and the rings can't change your eye colour either," Tee said, admiring Harry's startling green ones.

"Is that it?" Harry eagerly asked, giggling a bit. Laughing, Tee and Celia nodded.

"We can go now if you want," Tee said in response to Harry's tummy rumbling again. Harry nodded apologetically, but still smiling.

Celia and Tee, still in their disguises, watched as Harry picked the appearance of a muscular teen he had seen at the park once, who had prince charming perfect hair, and perfect everything. He kept his green eyes though, as the rings couldn't change that.

Taking Tee's hand, Harry walked outside the house, with Celia closing the front door, and they stood together in the driveway.

"Now Harry, we are going to be side-apparating to Diagon Alley. This is probably going to feel really bad, and if you need to throw up afterwards, please tell us." Celia said, securing Harry's backpack straps and taking his other hand.

Putting on a brave face, but not understanding what was about to happen, harry nodded. Looking at each other, Tee and Celia popped away, taking Harry with them. There was a faint screaming that could be heard as they popped away, but no one was awake to hear it.

None of them had noticed the old wind-blown shivering wizard flying towards the muggle house, screaming at them to wait.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Albus Dumbledore had flown overnight from Scotland, even using speed enhancing spells on the broom, only to see Harry and two figures pop away. Screaming in frustration, Albus crashed into the hedge of the house.

Checking the compass again, Albus screamed even more, waking up several muggles. He had no idea where they were, and he hadn't peed in over 10 hours. Shrinking his broom and pocketing it, he apparated back to Hogwarts in an absolute fury.

Blowing up several of his devices, he picked out the leaves and bird feathers from his beard and summoned an irate Snape to his office. Pacing furiously around his office, Dumbledore thought about what he had seen. Two strange adults taking Harry away. Must have been a kidnapping, he thought to himself.  
_I'd better not tell anyone else, _Albus pondered. _They might think I've lost him, and THAT wouldn't improve my reputation_. _Molly Weasley would KILL me, after all, I DID say that she could marry her youngest and take all Harry's money once he died. Hahaha, ALMOST all, I should say. I wouldn't mind getting a new broomstick or castle, if the opportunity should arise. _

Severus Snape burst into the office, cloak billowing and slightly covered in what appeared to be scrambled eggs.

"Headmaster, you called me?" he droned, eying the leaves on the floor curiously.

Looking up, Albus growled out, "Yes, Severus, just the man I wanted to see,'

"You are aware of how I went out in search of Harry myself?" he asked, ploughing on before Snape could say anything. "Yes, well I found him, but he got away before I could talk to him. He was with two strange people, and I fear that he may have been kidnapped. Have you heard anything from..." Albus puttered off, looking at Severus' left arm where the Dark Mark was.

"From Voldemort?" Snape asked.

"DON'T USE THAT NAME, ONLY I AM BRAVE ENOUGH TO USE THAT NAME!" Albus yelled. He was very tense, and his ego was under pressure. Snape wasn't being helpful, once again. Why did he even let him stay here? Oh yes, the excellently made lemon sherbets that he made. Laced with truthfulness potions, no one would suspect anything.

"But yes... Have you heard anything?" Albus asked again.

"No headmaster, the Dark Lord has remained regretfully absent."

"Drats, well that was the only plan I had." Sighing, Albus popped a sherbet into his mouth, forgetting about the potion.

"May I leave now? I have business that needs... attending to..." Snape said, thinking about his bacon and eggs that had gone so terribly wrong. He shouldn't have insulted the house elves, dammit! Oh well, he'll drug them later with compelling spells or something.

"Yes, of course Severus. I don't even know why I asked you here, you smell terrible ALL THE TIME, like ALL the time. Like sulphur being farted out by a giant rotten egg mixed with off potions ingredients. Seriously, you need to fix that. I should get my office repainted..." Albus mumbled, shoving his mouth full with the delicious muggle sweets.

Severus simply ignored him as he walked out, slamming the door loudly on his way.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

_Diagon Alley, around 9:30 am_

Harry, Celia, and Tee popped into one of the designated apparition zones at Diagon Alley, to find that _thankfully_ it wasn't too busy today. This way, they could get their jobs done quicker, and get out of there.

"Alright Harry, heads or tails on whether we go shopping first or go get breakfast first," Tee said, whipping out a large Galleon.

"Yeah! I choose HEADS!" Harry exclaimed loudly, earning chuckles from Tee and a warm smile from Celia. Tee chucked the coin up into the air and snatched it out, slamming it against the back of his hand.

"It'ssss... heads! Alright, lets go get our breakfast!" Tee cheered. Dancing up and down, Harry cheered too, and Celia let out a tinkling laugh.

"How about we go somewhere off the main road," Celia suggested dreamily. "I know a place that does AMAZING pancakes and syrup."

This warranted more cheering from the boys, and they followed Celia as she directed them to one of the side alleys that smelt vaguely of vanilla. The alley was spotted with cupcake stores, and coffee shops. After walking for a bit, they stopped outside a warm brown store called Cuppa' Cauldrons. Looking inside, there weren't many people.

The door played a little tune as they walked in, and a friendly looking woman approached them, smiling.

"Hello dears, how many?" she asked, wiping her hands on her pink apron.

"Three please," Celia replied. The lady nodded, and led them to a small table in the corner with puffy chairs for them to sit on. Three menus floated over as the lady walked away, and Harry giggled looking at all the yummy options.

"Harry, you can have anything you want on the menu, alright?" Celia said warmly, watching the boys giggle about the pancakes.

He'd never heard of the majority of them, as most of them were strange things like Cauldron Cakes or Broomstick Brunches, but he recognised a few things.

They ordered three plates of pancakes with a side of pumpkin juice and talked until the food came.

Harry had never had anything so delicious! The pancakes were the fluffiest he'd ever seen, and the syrup was warm and sticky. He tried the pumpkin juice hesitantly after Tee's insistence and found he quite liked it.

They finished up and paid, saying thankyou to the friendly lady, leaving the store for the main street again.

"Okay, now that we're nice and full, we should probably get onto the shopping. We should first off head to Gringotts to check out Harry's vault though," Tee said, patting his protruding stomach.

As they approached the giant building Harry was in awe. The whole thing was made of marble and was so grand, he couldn't believe his eyes. There were large columns out the front at least as tall as a two story building, and the words GRINGOTTS BANK were engraves in gold on the top of the building. Reading the inscription in the doorway, Harry shuddered at the thought of breaking in. Anyone who tried must be crazy, he thought to himself.

As they walked inside, Harry grabbed Tee's hand in fear at the small creatures behind the desks. They were like nothing he'd ever seen before! Most of them were short, and had greenish skin with stumpy hands.

"Those are goblins Harry. Be polite to them, and you'll be fine," Tee whispered into Harry's ear, comforting him.

They walked up to the nearest teller and waited politely. The goblin looked up slowly, obviously not giving two shits about them.

"How may I be of assistance today." He said, looking at them sullenly.

"We could like to inspect our vault today, and speak with the Potter family goblin," Celia said firmly, but politely.

The goblin stared at them for a minute, until it was uncomfortable, and then sighed.

"Name and key please." He asked, looking back at his paperwork.

"Um, we don't have his key, and would we be able to maybe get another one, but," Tee said, and then leaned in to whisper, "Harry Potter."

The goblin bolted straight up, and looked them in the eyes, and then looked at their hands, spotting the rings.

"Oh, certainly Mr Potter and co, please wait a moment," he said, much more politely. A wide feral grin stretched across his face, he called over another goblin.

"This is Wernock, your family's goblin. He's in charge of the Potter vaults, so all your... _questions_... can go to him. Have a nice day!" the goblin said much more enthusiastically than before. The short goblin, Wernock, looked quite old and excited to actually be doing something for the first time in 8 years.

"Come this way, we can discuss things and have tea in my office," Wernock said in a smooth deep voice that was completely unexpected from a tiny goblin. He led them through the main hall and into a corridor filled with offices. Taking them to one of the larger and older offices at the end of the corridor, he motioned for them to sit down.

"Tea?" he offered, only to be politely declined. Pouring himself one, he sipped it quietly.

"First off, before we do anything, we need to clarify that you are infact Harry Potter and not an imposter, so I hope you don't mind when I ask you to prick your finger on something for me?" Wernock asked, putting down his tea.

Harry looked uncertainly at Celia and Tee who just nodded encouragingly at him.

"Um, yeah sure... I guess," Harry said, pricking his finger on the golden needle that Wernock held up to him, dripping three drops of blood on a piece of parchment. The goblin held up the parchment and muttered a spell. Spirally writing formed on the page spelling out 'Harry James Potter'.

"Wonderful!" Wernock exclaimed. "I'll be honest with you; I wasn't sure whether it was really you Harry, as I expected you to look a little different. And a little younger," he added as an afterthought.

"Oh no, Mr Wernock, sir, I don't actually look like this, it's..." Harry said, taking off his ring. Celia and Tee did the same, revealing their true appearances.

Wernock handled it pretty well, merely nodding in understanding.

"Yes, I can see why one with your fame would want to hide their face. Thank you by the way," he said sincerely. "Life for goblins and magical creatures alike has significantly improved since your vanquishing of the Dark Lord."

"Oh, um... You're welcome? I guess?" Harry said uncertainly. Celia and Tee chuckled at this, and Wernock gave a slight smile.

"Alright. So, how can I help you?" the goblin said, getting into it.

Celia took over here, saving Harry from floundering.

"Ah, yes, we would like to check Harry's vault and get a new key, seeing as we don't actually have the original."

Looking at a piece of parchment from the Potter files Wernock made a noise in his throat and his eyes went wide.

"Vaults," he said, his voice breaking slightly.

"Pardon?"

"Vaults," he repeated, showing them the parchment.

On the page, below 'Potter Accounts' written in very old handwriting, was an intricate table of boxes. There were 6 boxes in total, each representing a vault.

"Mr Potter is actually the owner of 6 vaults, apparently. The Potter family vault, the Evans family vault, Mr Potter's trust vault, the Gryffindor vault, he has half ownership to the Peverell vault, and ownership to the Ried vault." Tee looked faint, and Celia's eyebrows moved into her hairline.

"What! That's crazy, I thought the Gryffindor line died out!" Tee yipped feebly.

"No, it is succeeded by distant relatives. Harry is the only surviving BLOOD relative, but there are several legal survivors," the goblin said, reading off the sheet again.

Harry was completely confused.

"Isn't Gryffindor one of the houses at Hogwarts? And what about the other vaults?" He asked, trying to clear his head a bit.

Carefully explaining, Celia replied "Yes Harry, Gryffindor is a Hogwarts house, but all the houses were named after the four most powerful witches and wizards at the time, who also founded the school." She looked to Wernock to explain the rest of it.

"Along with the things inside the vault itself, Gryffindor vault comes with several properties, most of which have not been lived in for over a century. One of the more notable estates is Godric's Hollow."

"Harry owns Godric's Hollow?" Tee asked interestedly. Wernock grinned at him.

"Harry, that's a small village, maybe even a town," Celia whispered to Harry, catching his attention.

"Oh!" Was all he inputted.

"Your other vaults are... interesting, to say the least. Three vaults are from your immediate family; the Potter family vault, the Evans vault, which was your mothers vault, and your trust vault, which your parents arranged for you. Currently, your schooling is being paid for from your trust vault. The Potter vault is one of the oldest and more valuable vaults in Gringotts, as your family is actually one of the older families. Due to your young age, you will not be able to take anything out of it yet, apart from money. Everything else will have to wait until you are of age, or until your legal guardian takes whatever it is out for you," he briefly explained, Harry nodding in understanding.

"The Potter vault actually also comes with several properties, located around the world. There is the one in Godric's Hollow, which most people know about, and then two castles in Great Brittan, a decent sized house in Ireland, a small flat in Hogsmead, a manor in Romania, and a house in Hawaii. If you were considering spending a holiday abroad, I would suggest the last property," Wernock mentioned.

"The other three vaults are also highly interesting, in particular, the Gryffindor vault. That vault was been inactive for several years, as there were no survivors of the family who made their presence known. The Gryffindor vault is one of the oldest vaults in Gringotts too, and is on the lowest layer of the bank. The other two vaults you have, the Perevell vault and the Ried vault, are also substantial, but obviously not on the same layer. Owning half the Perevell vault means that you can take everything apart from the cold hard money. The owner of the other half of the vault has the rights to all the coins in there, but you can take gold bars, books, weapons or anything you find in there that takes your fancy.'

"Lastly, the Ried vault. This a much smaller vault, and far more recent than your other vaults. The last owner was... Aristotle Ried, who died in 1932. He was not a rich man, so there is not much gold in there, but the interest it has gathered has made it worth something at least," Wernock finished with a sigh. Celia looked a little numb at that massive chunk of information, but Tee's face was one of those Jackpot kind of faces.

"Woah, so how much money is in the vaults all together?" Harry asked, a little breathy.

"I'm afraid that kind of information would take a few days to work out, Mr Potter. You have substantial wealth and calculating its total worth would take a while."

A little disappointed, Harry persevered.

"But, do you know how much money is in my trust vault?"

Nodding affirmatively, Wernock handed him the parchment again, pointing to a little box with a green finger.

The little box labled 'Harry Potter Trust Vault' had the numbers 1,062,596 under it. The adults, who had been looking over Harry's shoulder gasped in shock, and started breathing quickly.

Looking around at them, Harry was confused.

"What? What's that mean?" Wernock looked at him gleefully.

"Mr Potter, it means that you have one million sixty two thousand five hundred and ninety six Galleons in your vault. That is the equivalent to £5,312,980."

Harry's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, and he didn't move for a minute, before yelling out,

"IMAGINE HOW JEALOUS DUDLEY WOULD BE!" This caused everyone in the room to burst out in laughter.

Calming down, Celia put a soft hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Harry, child, I would imagine that James and Lily meant for this to fund your schooling and all other needs you have until you reach 17 years of age. That's usually what trust funds are for."

"Oh, so I can't spend it all?"

Celia shook her head, causing Harry to pout a little bit, until he starting grinning like the Cheshire cat again.

"Wernock, earlier you said something about Harry's magical guardian being able to remove things from his vaults," Tee asked curiously. Wernock indicated for him to go on.

"Who is Harry's legal guardian, because we've never heard anything about them, and we might want to have a chat with them about Harry's safety and such."

Wernock opened Harry's file and searched through it a bit, before reading out a line.

"Albus Dumbledore is Harry's legal guardian."

"WHAT!" Both adults screamed. The goblin and Harry looked confused at this.

"What's wrong with Dumbledore, if I may ask?" Wernock asked, puzzled.

Celia leaned in, "We don't trust him. Not at all, and if he has access to Harry's vault, and has legal claim over him, that could raise some serious problems. Does he have Harry's vault key as well, do you know?" she asked, her eyebrows pushed together in worry.

"Uh, yes the records do say that a Albus Dumbledore is currently in possession of the main Potter vault key. We can recall it if you want though, and he mightn't notice. You would then be able to take it and access the main Potter vault."

"That would be excellent Wernock, thank you. If he could not notice, that would be fantastic too," Tee said, sitting back in his chair.

"Alright, I'll handle that, and you can come collect the key in a day or two," Wernock said affirmatively. He was just closing the files, when something caught his eye. Suspiciously looking at the trio, he asked

"Have either of you taken any money out of Harry's vaults and anytime since the death of his parents?"

Looking between themselves, they all shook their heads.

"I didn't even know magic existed until recently," Harry piped in.

"Are you sure? Not even a Galleon?"

"Someone is going to have to explain wizarding money to me at some point, cause I've got no bloody idea what seeckles and galleons are," Harry moaned, earning a whack on the head and a reminder not to swear.

"Later Harry. And, no, none of us have taken any money out at all. Why do you ask?" Tee asked, his curiosity piked.

Breathing in deeply, trying to contain his anger, Wernock passed them a piece of paper, and sat back.

The sheet of paper before their eyes was titled "Withdrawals from the Noble House of Potter's Vault". Dating back to November 3rd 1981, there were several recorded withdrawals, at least 15, all above 5,000 Galleons. All of them had written next to them, in tiny writing, "Approved by legal guardian'.

In outrage, Celia and Tee stood up, and had to pace around the room to calm themselves. Harry just sat in his chair, trying to process what was happening.

Wernock leaned over to him, and explained the situation, and Celia and Tee were soon joined by a furious 9 year old.

When the trio sat down, the adults glared at Wernock expectantly, waiting for him to come up with a way to fix the problem. The unspoken words were not missed by Harry, and he tightly asked,

"Wernock, sir, someone has stolen from my bank account, and if it is like you said, and was Dumbledore, I would rather like my money back. What can Gringotts do?"

Wernock stared at Harry, deep in thought.

"Well, Mr Potter, Gringotts does have policies that can be enforced in situations like this, such as the "Any person/creature who withdraws over 10,000 Galleons without the notification of the owner of the vault with be dealt with in a manner fitting to their crime" policy. In this case, I would say that the punishment for this offense would be paying back all the stolen money, and suspension of his vault. Possibly, if we appeal to the Ministry of Magic, we could get him put in Azkaban for a while, but I doubt that would work, considering how much political power he has. This is if we can prove it was him, by the way," he added quickly. "What we can do for you now, is report this to the authorities, and disallow him from making any further withdrawals from any of your vaults."

Harry nodded.

"I think that sounds good, Mr Wernock sir."

Celia and Tee were sipping their lukewarm tea, and breathing heavily through their noses. Deciding to clarify something, Celia pointedly asked,

"We're also getting the key off him, right?"

"Yes, the key will be dealt with, as well as the grand total money that Harry owns. We will call you in a couple of days, and you can collect the key and the information." Wernock said, eating a jam biscuit, and making a face.

Sighing, Celia and Tom looked at each other, then at Harry.

"I think that's all for now, thank you Wernock. You have been extremely helpful and we have much to think about. Could we visit Harry's trust vault and withdraw some Galleons please?" Tee asked, getting up out of his seat.

They ignored the muttering nine year old, who was saying something about seeckles and galleons, and got up to go to the vault. The cart ride there was exciting, and Harry had to restrain himself from screaming in delight the whole way. Once inside the vault, they filled a leather bag that was charmed to be undetectably larger on the inside with gold silver and copper coins.

Tee explained wizarding money to Harry, telling him how there were 29 Knuts to a sickle, and 17 sickles to a Galleon. Harry made a comment about how bloody complicated it was, and got a whack on the head for his cheek. Once everything was finished up, they exited the vault, and took the cart back to the top. Harry waved goodbye to Wernock as they left, and the goblin walked away laughing under his breath, thinking something about Boys-Who-Lived.


	4. Chapter 4 sorryfornotposting,ihadnowifi

**A.N/ **Guys, sorry this took so long to upload compared to the other two, we had no internet. This chapter is a shopping chapter, and I tried not to go too into it, because I know that gets boring. Concerning Celia and Tee, I will explain them very soon, either this chapter or next. Do you guys want a slash in this story? And if so, who with?

Btw, to the shiety reviewer, im going to assume you can read, so read the summary. It _says_ Dumbledore bashing, so put two and two together. I am going to emphasise the fact that this story is for my own enjoyment, and if it something doesnt please you about it, dont read it. If you have _helpful_ feedback, that will_ assist_ me in making the story _better_, please let me know. Thank you to all the people who followed and read, and i apologise again for the long wait.

Disclaimer: no.

As they walked around Diagon Alley, Harry grinned at the weight of the gold filled bag in his pocket. Today was quite a day for him, because as long as he could remember, he'd always had to wear Dudley's hand me downs, and NO ONE could make those look good. He would finally get his own things, which no one else could share; his own clothes that fit him, his own books, his own PET maybe. Beaming the whole time, Harry followed Celia and Tee around the alley. The two were talking about something regarding potions ingredients but Harry had managed to just zone them out into a faint sort of buzzing noise.

They walked around the alley for a bit, before they stopped in front of a store called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Finishing their conversation, they turned to face Harry.

"Harry," Celia said softly. "We're going to split up a bit here. Tee has some things he needs to go purchase, and you and I will go buy all the essentials. We can come back another time and get all the extra things we don't need quite yet. Does that sound alright to you?" She said, pocketing a list of groceries.

Harry bobbed his head, still quite enthusiastic about the prospect of fitting clothes. Tee waved goodbye to them as he walked away. They were to meet up in the Leaky Cauldron in three hours, giving them ample time to wander around a bit and buy things.

Celia took Harry into the store, the door chiming as they walked in. There were a few customers being served, and Harry looked around at the cloaks suspended on the walls for display. _So it's social norm for people to wear these things..._ Harry thought. This explained a lot.

A middle aged woman bustled over to them, wringing her hands together. She seemed a little bit distracted by something rather, and quickly turned around, yelling at someone to try and salvage something. Turning back to face them, she forced a friendly smile on her face.

"Hello dears, what can I get you for?"

Looking at Harry in case he wanted to take over, and seeing him shake his head, Celia started,

"Oh, if we could just get a set of robes for my son please, that would be lovely. Just some casual black ones, and maybe a semi-formal set as well please."

The lady nodded the whole time, and smiled at them again.

"Sure thing dearies, this way please, we just need to measure you up," she said to Harry, who gulped a bit. He'd never actually been measured before, and was still highly uncomfortable with physical contact, even from Celia and Tee. It made his guts twist around themselves, but he decided to put on a brave face and proceed. They followed the lady to a platform of sorts, and the woman whipped out a tape measure, leaving it floating in the air.

The measurer came to life, and started floating around and measuring all over Harry. Celia caught up a conversation with the woman about politics or something boring, and they only stopped when Harry made a noise of protest as the tape measure was measuring his hair strands. With a flick of her wand, the woman banished it, and went over to get some fabrics.

Holding them up against Harry's chest, she showed each fabric to Celia, looking for approval. They decided on a plain black colour for the casual robes, and a deep intense emerald colour for the semi-formal, to bring out Harry's eyes more. Once this was done, the woman led the back to the front of the store, telling them to come back in 30-45 minutes for their finished items.

Leaving the store, Harry shook himself out a bit, still uncomfortable from that mildly confronting situation. He took Celia's extended hand hesitantly, and followed her further down the main road. They walked for a bit as Celia peered in the shops, referring to her shopping list, and finally stopped at a shop called Flourish and Blotts, which appeared to be a book store. Walking in, Harry was astounded at the sheer number of books inside. Again, he was unfamiliar with the names of most of the things, but was still captured by them none the less.

Wandering around, Harry was told that he could get as many books as he wanted. Filled with a new kind of joy, he ran around looking at the books. Several caught his attention, such as _Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them, Potions for the Phierce Hearted, Potions for Beginners, A Beginners Guide to Defensive Magic, Hogwarts- A History_, and _Amazing Animagus_, among other books. He wandered over to Celia, his arms full with the books he wanted, and plonked them in her slightly filled basket. It seemed to adjust to the new books, and slightly grow. _Huh. Neat trick_, Harry thought.

Celia looked through Harry's books and frowned a bit

"Some of these look a little advanced Harry..." She murmured. Harry looked at her desperately, with the cutest puppy dog eyes he could muster up. "But I get knowing won't hurt you," she said, giving in.

"Yaay!" Harry cheered, drawing some disapproving glances from the other customers.

Celia told him to go look in the charms and transfiguration section, as she and Tee wanted him to know about all the things. As she was in the history section, she put a couple books in for Harry herself.

From the charms and transfiguration section, Harry selected _Charms for Champions, Standard Level Charms: 1, Turning a Prince into a Toad_, and _Milley's Guide To Transfiguration_. On his way over Celia, Harry noticed a thick book called _Twitching with the Fabrics of Time_. For some reason, this caught his attention, and Harry added it to the pile.

As Celia was finished too, they went up to the counter and paid. Placing a small mound of Galleons on the counter, they took their books in a shrunk package, and Celia slipped it into her pocket for when they got home.

Walking around Diagon Alley was actually really interesting, as it was filled with such a rich exciting atmosphere that Harry had never seen before. The magic in the air was palpable, and even on a weekday, like today, there were swarms of people in the Alley. Street vendors were selling foods on the sides of shops, like Deep Fried Newts. Looking in the stores, Harry saw broomsticks, and magical animals, and potions ingredients, and magical furniture. He even saw what he thought was a store selling whale fetus brains. Harry heard a woman walk past saying,

"Five Galleons to fix my wand? The old man's going crazy, I swear!" Looking up to Celia, Harry noticed she was scanning her list. Poking her elbow as politely as possible, he caught her attention.

"Celia?" he said, tentatively. "Could I maybe get a wand today? Its just that you and Tee have one, and I would quite like to be able to perform magic too.." he said, trailing off.

"Oh, Harry! Of course you can get a wand, I was just thinking about doing that, actually. We'll pop over to Ollivander's and get you a wand." She said, turning around and taking Harry with her.

They walked into an old store that was old and thin on the exterior, and had the words _Ollivanders: __Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC_ written on the door. The store was completely devoid of customers, but wands aren't something you need to regularly buy. The walls were lined with thin boxes, and everything was covered in a thin layer of dust.

"Hrmmm... I wonder if he's still in here," she muttered, glancing around the shop.

"Ollivander! Could we please get assistance out the front?" She called out loudly. A loud shuffling sound came from the back of the shop and a man called out,

"Of course, I'll be with you in a second! Just let me... AH!" Several crashing noises came out, jumping Harry and Celia. An old man with greying hair hobbled out of the back of the shop, cranking out his back. Wincing, he looked up at them.

"Oh, apologies about that, there was a slight poxy infestation in the back that I just had to deal with. Got rid of the blighters, no worries," he said, looking viciously to the back of the store. Fully facing the pair, he squinted at them a bit.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with you. Are you from around here?" He asked, not seeing through the ring's disguises. Celia looked at Harry, giving him that 'Let me handle this' look that most parents seemed to have.

"Ahah, yes, you are very observant. My son and I,' Celia said, laughing softly and clasping Harry's shoulder firmly, "Are actually from... Manchester! We've just moved in not too far away, and needed a new wand for him. So, don't feel bad about not recognising us," she said, faltering a little bit. Harry played the part and smiled happily at the suspicious old man.

Ollivander straightened up, and relaxed a bit.

"Oh, of course Madam, just getting to know the locals. Welcome to London. Shall we try find a new wand for the young master?" He said, walking over to the shelves.

"Which is your wand hand?" he asked Harry.

"Um, I'm right handed, if that's what you mean." Ollivander nodded at this. He leaned over his shoulder, and stared at Harry for a bit.

"Um..." Harry fidgeted, feeling uncomfortable under the strong gaze of the man. Celia tightened her grip on his shoulder, telling him to calm down.

"I'm just trying to work out what core would suit you best, young sir," Ollivander explained, looking away. The old man was silent for a moment, not moving until Celia cleared her throat loudly.

"Ah, yes... I'll be honest with you two. I am usually quite a good guess at what core would suit what person, but with you, young master, I have absolutely no idea." _What if there isnt a wand for me? What if I cant pick any of them?_ Harry fretted. Almost as if hearing Harry's thoughts, the old man creaked,

"The wand chooses the wizard my boy." He gave Harry another searching look, before giving up.

"Oh well, nothing wrong with doing it the old fashioned way. Come over here, and wave your hand around the shelves. If you feel anything calling out to you, tell me and we'll have a look."

Harry walked over to the shelves and waved his hands around slowly, trying to feel anything reaching out to him. He did this for a minute or so, walking all around the store, until he felt something tiny pulling him towards the store counter. Walking up to it, he stuck his hand out, following the pull. The two adults looked mildly confused at this, as all the visible wands were in the walls.

Still following the pull, Harry pulled open one of the draws. Inside was a single thin box. The pull coming from it was obviously what Harry felt. As he lifted the box out of the drawer for everyone to see, Ollivander gave a sharp gasp. Looking up to the old man, he held out the box.

"That one, m'boy?" Harry nodded firmly. Ollivander walked over, and opened the box for Harry to see. He handed him the stick, and as Harry took it a warm feeling rushed all through his body and red and green sparks erupted from the end of the wand. Turning to face Ollivander, grinning widely again, not for the first time today, the smile was wiped of his face as he saw that both the adults were frozen solid where they stood.

_Oh no, this is just like with the Dursleys'!_ Harry thought. Putting the wand down on the counter, he ran out to the shop window, and muffled a scream as he saw that people in the immediate area of the shop were frozen too. Luckily there weren't many people around to see it, so hopefully no one would notice. Running back to the counter, Harry gripped the wand tight to his chest, and _wished_ that everyone would go back to moving. His heart slowed down when Ollivander and Celia began moving normally again.

"Oh, yes this is definitely the right one for you. 11 inches long, holly with phoenix feather. Curious though... Very curious..." Ollivander murmured, putting the empty box away.

Celia stepped up.

"Sorry, but what's curious?" His eyes flicking up to her, and then darting to Harry and his new wand, the man explained.

"Well, I remember all the people who visit my store, and all the wands ive ever sold, and that wand in particular is special. It is special because of the core inside it. That wand contains a phoenix feather, specifically a phoenix feather of a bird called Fawkes. Usually those types of birds only ever give out one feather, but Fawkes was unusual. Fawkes gave me _two_ feathers. I used them both in wands, and made two _brother_ wands. These two wands will always have a connection. One of those wands is very famous, you see. It is the wand of the Dark Lord, You-Know-Who. It was a very powerful wand, and it just interests me to see you buy that wand, considering that it's brother almost killed Harry Potter. Gave him a nasty scar instead. Very curious..." The old man muttered again.

Harry was frozen solid in his sneakers, slightly terrified from that story. Celia was a little bit angry, but was still dedicated to her part.

"Oh, well what a coincidence. How much for the wand, Ollivander?" she asked briskly, but politely.

Snapping out of his faze, he coughed.

"Oh, uh 7 galleons please."

Paying him the adequate money, she let Harry get familiar with his wand while she also purchased a wand holder for him. Walking out of the store one wand, and one wand holster richer, they had done quite well. Harry was still very quiet though. Noticing this, Celia took him aside and looked at him sadly.

"Harry, do not worry about what that man said. It has happened, it has been done. There is nothing you or I could do to reverse that man's deeds. Yes, your mother and father were killed by him, and yes he did try to kill you too, but you know this. I know it is hard, but remember- no matter where you go Harry, there will always, _always_. Be people who love you. People who will help you," she said. A single tear rolled down Harry's check, as he mourned his parents. Seeing this, Celia grasped him in a tight hug. With a shuddering breath, she said,

"Harry, I know this will sound weird, but I understand. Voldemort has taken things from me too, and has forced me from the things I love most in my life. The best thing to do is to move on and find new things to love. Of course we will always remember them, and miss them, but we won't do them any good by just crying over them." She said, releasing him from the hug. Wiping a stray tear from his face, she smiled at him.

"Come on, my little warrior, let's go get some ice cream. We can finish the shopping later."

Appreciating her efforts, Harry nodded. They walked over to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and got some treats. As Harry licked his Crackling Chocolate Curiosity, Celia nibbled at her plain vanilla one. She whipped out a note pad and wrote something quickly on it, and Harry was once again amazed, to see other writing appear after a second. Seeing his wonderstruck look, she explained,

"It's a note pad that sends messages to its twin. Tee has the other, and if I write something in mine, it will turn up on his. It's how we communicate over distances."

Harry nodded at this, and continued with his frozen delicacy.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Not too long after, the pair were into a luggage store. Harry was in need of a new backpack by order of Celia, and he wasn't protesting.

The gangly teenager manning the store saw them come in and ran over to them.

"HellohowmayIhelpyoumynameisIan" he spat out, clearly excited to actually have customers.

Blinking slowly, Celia gathered herself. Harry guwaffed quietly, and started wandering around, looking at the bags and trunks available. Celia briefly explained to the teen what they needed. He led her around the store, showing her completely irrelevant and extremely expensive items which were 'all perfect for your needs'. While this was going on, Harry was looking inside the backpacks.

They were all works of art, and amazing. Some had undetectable extension charms on them, some had increased durability guarantees of over 10 years, some had locks on them that could only be opened by blood, or only by the owner- they were truly incredible. As Celia escaped the sales assistant, she found Harry admiring a tan backpack. On the side, there was a note saying how it was undetectably expanded, and had enough space to fit a person inside if needs be. It had three separate pockets, one for books, one for potions ingredients (with a cooling system too), and one for general things. Each pocket was extended too, and the entire bag could only be opened by the owner. It was also shrinkable to half its size for convenience. She was impressed with the bag too, and withheld a sigh when she saw the price. Remembering the giant pile of gold Harry had recently acquired, she agreed, and brought Harry over to buy it.

Before leaving the store, Harry asked if he could get a trunk.

"We'll get you one when you go to Hogwarts Harry, for now this is only the essentials."

Accepting this as reasonable, they left with Harry's new bag. They only had muggle clothes (for under his robes) and a pet left to get. The rest was to be gotten when Harry went to Hogwarts, or was already owned by Tee and Celia. They decided to pick up the ordered robes first, and then meet up with Tee to get Harry's pet, as well as get some muggle clothes for general wear. They had to meet up with Tee first, so Celia wrote to him, and got a positive response.

Quickly walking to Madam Malkins, Celia picked up the robes and paid, while Harry watched a child get measured. Leaving promptly, they headed back to the street.

Ten minutes later, they saw a grinning Tee with his pockets bulging with shrunken packets, and a massive ice cream in his hand. Licking the stuff off his face, he greeted them, and they started off to the pet store. Celia and Tee had made an executive decision that Harry would get an owl, due to its practicality, so they took him to a curious store called Eeylops Owl Emporium, which was covered in bird poo. There were birds on perches outside, screeching at the passer-by's, and birds inside too, pecking at the sales assistants fingers.

Cautiously walking in, Tee and Celia stood back and chatted about things while Harry ran around looking at the birds. He thought they were all marvellous, but was particularly caught by a snowy white owl, which was staring him down. Not in an evil way, but in a familiar way, that was warm to Harry. Walking over, he extended his arm out to the bird, and the bird jumped on it, fiddling with Harry's messy hair. The shop assistant walking past gasped.

"Oh woah mister, you must be some sorta bird whisperer, ey? That 'un there ne'er talks to anyone, ey! Just sits there and screeches at me. You can bloody have 'er, half price. Just getter offa my hands, ey," she said, staring wide eyed at Harry. Grinning, and throwing a couple of galleons at the stunned girl, he ran up to Tee and Celia.

"Look! Look! The girl said I could have her half price! I think she likes me!" Harry laughed, as the bird tickled his arm. The warm weight was something that Harry found he enjoyed a bit. Sighing in resignation, the adults went and purchased the owl essentials, such as owl treats, an extended cage that was large enough for at least an eagle, and a perch. Along with two live mice, male and female, that would mate and become prey for the bird. Just to train her up a bit.

"Harry, what are you going to call her?" Tee asked as they walked out of the store.

Thinking for a moment, Harry looked at the bird.

"I think... Hedwig sounds right. What do you think, girl,' he asked the owl, "Do you like the name Hedwig?" He said, receiving a cheek nuzzle in return. Sniggering, he petted her beak.

The adults aww'd at this, and started heading out. Checking the list one last time, Celia decided that they had nothing left to do at the Alley for now, and so would head to the Muggle world, to pick up some clothes for Harry and groceries for dinner. Walking over to the apparition site, they popped away to a discrete spot near a large shopping centre. Just before they left, none of them noticed an old man eying them suspiciously as he clutched a bag of lemon sherbets to his chest.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

With a massive flush of flames, out of the fireplace in Albus Dumbledore's office walked the man himself, his mouth full of sweets.

"Fawkes, mmgo fech Mmminrva please," the old man managed through the lollies. Rolling his eyes, the bird flamed away, returning a second later with a struggling woman.

"LET ME GO YOU WRETCHED BIRD OR I'LL TURN YOU INTO DRUMSTICKS!" Minerva screeched at the bird, incensed by her kidnapping. Seeing Albus, she turned on him.

"YOU send your BLOODY bird to summon me again, and ill shave off your beard, I SWEAR to MERLIN, ILL SHOW YOU WHY I HAVE A MASTERS IN TRANSFIGURATION, YOU-" she yelled, pointing at him furiously. The man sighed heavily through his teeth and whipped out his wand, throwing a calming spell at her.

"YOoouuu.. oh hello there Albus. What a peaceful day it is... I apologies for those rude words before, I don't know what got into me. How can I help you today, on this lovely, lovely day?" the woman sighed contentedly. Rolling his eyes, Albus swallowed the lollies.

"Minerva, I think I saw something at Diagon Alley of vital importance. It is imperative that you listen closely, do you understand?" he said quietly and seriously.

Minerva's eyes were glazing over, and she just hummed a happy yes.

"Okay. Whilst conducting very important experiments in Diagon Alley regarding the health and safety of the people, of course, I saw something which I think may be vital to what I told you about earlier. It was..." Albus drawled, obviously trying to be suspenseful.

"Mmmyess?" Minerva hummed.

"A 6 for the price of 4 Sherbet Lemon sale! Isn't it wonderful? Now I shan't run out for at LEAST another week or two!" he gushed, grinning at Minerva. The woman in question was giggling at the portraits, and didn't notice when Albus started spinning her chair around and throwing lollies in the air.

Cackling, the old man banished the transfiguration teacher out of the room and slammed the door shut with his wand. Wiping a tear of laughter from his eyes, he proceeded to start tainting the sweets.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Three laughing people walked out of a department store, their hands full of bags stuffed with clothes and groceries. Harry was flushed bright red and Celia and Tee were clutching their guts with laughter, tears threatening to make an appearance. They had bought Harry several sets of clothes, simple ones, nothing too fancy, and a new pair of shoes, as his current ones had more holes than fabric.

"It wasn't funn-"  
"OH, but it WAS!" Celia gasped between bouts of laughter.

They were referring to Harry slipping and falling in the middle of the crowded shopping centre, and conveniently being in the back of a newspaper shoot as it happened.

"Ah..." Tee sighed, whipping a non-existent tear from his eye.

They walked into a discrete ally, to pop away and before they left, Celia grabbed Harry's hand.

"Harry, we're going to go home now. If you are at all uncomfortable, let us know, alright?" Searching his eyes for any form of hesitancy, she found none, and so took him to her side and popped away with Tee.

They arrived in what looked to be the kitchen of a large house. The furnishings and equipment were quite modern and fashionable, keeping to a blocky black and white colour scheme. The kitchen alone was large enough for them to stand in comfortably, and they placed their grocery bags on the counter. Through a doorway arch, Harry could see a dining table set, also very chic, and very comfortable looking.

"Woah, your house is really cool, guys..." Harry said in awe. This totally trumped the Dursley's house, making theirs look like a doll house in comparison.

"Aw, stop it you." Batting at him playfully, Tee began to unload the groceries.

"Tee, don't do that by hand, just call Minnie- Harry, make yourself comfortable." Nodding, Harry waddled over to the doorway, and looked through, his bottom still hurting from falling in the shopping centre.

"Minnie!" Harry heard from behind him. A softer popping noise came, and Harry twirled around giving a sharp intake as he saw the strange creature before Tee. Almost like a goblin, the small thing was very thin and short, with large ears and beady friendly eyes. It was wearing a warm looking jumper that snuggly fit it, and Harry could see the word Lovegood embroidered on the front.

Looking over to the perpetrator of the noise, the thing squeaked, and looked up to Tee excitedly.

"Masters has brought company! Masters should have warned Minnie so she could make tea and biscuits and things!" it squeaked in a high pitch voice. Speeding over to Harry, it grasped his hand, bobbing its head furiously. "Master's friend, I am Minnie, the house elf of the Lovegood family! Would you like some hot beverages?"

Looking over to Celia uncomfortably, Harry winced.

"Ahhhh, I think I'm okay for now, thanks? I'm Harry by the way."

Nodding even harder, the elf smiled, "Oh okay Mr Harry, Minnie will keep you full." Running over to the counter, she touched the bottoms of the grocery bags, barely reaching, and popped away, taking the bags with her.

His hand still shaking slightly mid-air, Harry winced at the couple.

"What the heck was that? House of Lovegood family?" Celia and Tee fidgeted at his wide eyed staring, and glanced at each other fretfully.

"That was a house elf, Harry...' Tee said, scratching behind his ear, and not looking at the boy, "errr, they're a breed of creatures that are often owned by wizards or witches, and essentially be a servant, cleaning the house and cooking and things like that. They belong to the family who bought them, and must obey them, and if they don't, they must punish themselves, or be punished. Some wizards tend to mistreat their elves, hurting them, but I think Celia and I treat Minnie quite well. She has a young daughter, who is learning how to help, but is too young at the moment. Queenie, I think it was..."

Harry nodded in understanding, looking over to where Minnie had popped away. Celia grimaced a bit, blurting,

"And we will explain the rest of that later, how bout some cake? Cake, harry?" Forgetting whatever they were talking about, Harry eagerly sat down, and a thick slab of decadently iced cake appeared infront of him. Squealing, he dug in, blurring out everything except his cake.

Celia and Tee were having a whispered conversation while this was going on,

"Darling, I think we should tell him, he's coming to live with us and it's only right..." Celia murmured behind her hand.

Nodding, Tee replied, "Yes, yes I think we should... Tonight is probably best. I'll join you." Giving him a mouthed thank you, she walked over to Harry and took his empty plate.

"Let's go pick your room and get you settled in, my little warrior," she said, smiling at the icing on Harry's face. Wiping it off, she pushed him through the kitchen door and up the stairs that were on the other side of a corridor, opposite the door. On the landing she pointed out the several doors, explaining that the red door at the end of the corridor was hers, and the one on the left of that was Tee's. Each room was extended internally, and was also silenced, for privacy. She pointed out the music room with the green door, the library with the brown door (which Harry was eager to visit), a pair of duelling and spell practicing rooms, both with lilac doors, the lounge room with the orange door, and several spare rooms with blank doors.

"The potions lab is in the basement, two flights of stairs down, and I would ask you not to wander there until we say it is okay. Some of the experiments can be a little dangerous. On the ground floor is a reception room, dining room, kitchen- which you've seen, ball room, and several other rooms that aren't important. Feel free to wander around the house apart from the basement, and if you get lost, call upon Minnie, and she shall help you," she said, helping Harry take of his backpack.

"When we actually start to train you Harry, we'll take you to the duelling rooms and the potion rooms and things, so that you can learn in a safe environment," Tee pointed out. "In the meantime, you can pick your bedroom. There are five spare rooms, I think, so you can pick any one you want."

Astonished that they trusted him that much, Harry ventured forward, inspecting each room's interior and location. Each room had a queen bed, a bookshelf full of random books, as well as a desk and dresser, and a mirror. After looking in each room, he picked the one closest to the library, with a shy grin.

"Definitely a Ravenclaw," Celia whispered to Tee, and he agreed.

They all helped Harry put his stuff away that they had bought that day. Thankfully the room was quite large, because they hadn't realised how much stuff they had bought, and had ended up buying _a lot_.

Putting the last book in the bookshelf, Harry stood back and sighed with contentment. This was by _far_ the best day in his life. He didn't know why he trusted Celia and Tee so much, but he just did. They felt familiar to him, and he couldn't help but like that about them.

Celia helped Harry change the colours and furniture of his room, to Harry's requests. The walls were now a warm dark green and the windows were outlined silver. His bed sheets were a dark shade of green too, but like sunshine gleaming on oak leaves on an autumn day. His bookshelf was dark mahogany, as was his desk and chair. His dresser and closest were a pleasant oaky colour too. The room felt lovely and warm already, and Harry smiled softly.

"Thank you so much, Celia and Tee. This means more to me than I can tell you..." he murmured, stroking his books.

"Maybe Slytherin?" Tee whispered, looking at the colour scheme. Celia nodded back, answering Harry with,

"Darling, it is our pleasure." Harry looked up at her, and hugged her, his eyes brimming with tears.

Celia gasped at first, shocked at the first affectionate physical contact they had seen Harry give, but quickly hugged him back.

"Now Harry, Tee and I need to go check up on a couple things, do you think you would mind occupying yourself for an hour or two? We'll send Minnie up to you when we're done," she said, patting his hair and releasing him from the hug.

"It's okay, I might just visit the Library," Harry agreed comfortably. Smiling at this, Celia and Tee left, closing the door quietly.

Hearing a popping noise coming from the closet, Harry rushed over and opened the door, noticing that his Muggle clothes they had bought had appeared next to his robes. Thanking Minnie, he closed the door and left for the Library, excited to plunge himself into the new world of magic.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The evening paper for Surrey had just come out, and the article on the second page was something shocking to the British community.

LITTLE WHINGING FAMILY ARESTED FOR SUSPECTED MURDER

By Miranda Wholdings

Early this morning, over in Little Whinging, there was a call to the police reporting a missing person, description; child of about nine, male, black messy hair, bright green eyes. A batch of police was sent over to investigate the house reported, and stumbled across a horrific scene.

Under the staircase of the family, in the cupboard, was what appeared to be the living quarters of a small child, equipped with small toys and a single light. The space, barely _ by _ was filled up by a tiny mattress, where it is assumed that the missing child slept. The family in question, the Dursely's, say that they were taking care of "the freak", and that "You sticky busy bodies should keep your sticky noses out of our business!". Following the discovery of the room, stains on the walls, which have been confirmed as blood and human excrement, have been found, as well as a blood stained belt in the master bedroom. The family has been evicted from their home, and are being held for questioning.

Neighbours claim that they often heard screaming coming from the house, but were turned away by the wife, being told that the boys were just rough housing. One Sophie Jamieson says that she "noticed that they kept the boy unhealthily thin. Poor thing was always in Dudley's (the eldest son of the Dursley's) cast offs, making him look so terribly small."

If found guilty or murder, along with child abuse and neglect, among other potential charges, the Dursley's will face minimum of 5 years of jail, no bail, and the son will be sent to live with his aunt.

READ MORE ON THE CASE ON PAGE 5

SURREY MOTHER ASTOUNDS GYNECOLOGISTS WITH HER QUICK 5 MINUTE ROUTINE, READ MORE ON PAGE 8

Below the article, was a picture of the Dursley's house, with the police tape up and cars on the front lawn. In the corner, a fat man and his family could be seen struggling against the police, being evicted from the property.

Around the area of Little Whinging, families could be heard saying,

"Oh, I knew they were up to no good."

"That poor child, never stood a chance against those beasts!"

"Look at the size of that man, what a monstrosity. Who ever thought to let a child stay under his care."

While on her evening jog, Celia noticed the paper. Laughing with mirth, the witch bought a copy of the newspaper, planning to give it to Harry at dinner, as a sort of welcoming gift. Jogging back onto her path, she grinned in a sort of evil way, thinking of how she could sneak into the trial to watch.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

When Celia popped back into the kitchen, her face fell into an eye crinkling smile. Harry and Minnie's daughter Queenie were sitting at the table counter, eating what looked like handmade biscuits, both covered in pink icing. Queenie, who was the size of a large bag of flour and dressed in a green little dress, looked like a Christmas ornament, and Harry, who was laughing, was dotting her nose with more icing. Minnie was over by the oven, taking out the second batch of biscuits, smiling at their antics.

Hearing her master popping back in, Minnie looked up and squealed, nearly dropping the tray of biscuits.

"Oooh! Master, look! Master Harry and my Queenie have been making vanilla biscuits, topped with rose icing!" she squealed, holding the tray of hot biscuits up to Celia.

Smiling softly at this, she cast a quick cooling charm on the biscuits and picked one up, sampling it. Her eyes widened as the food melted in her mouth, creating a lovely sweet flavour.

"This is amazing! Did you say that Harry and Queenie made this?" she asked Minnie incredulously. The elf nodded her head, her ears flapping everywhere. Harry and Queenie looked up, their faces covered in light pink goo.

"Mummy helped us cook it though!" Queenie exclaimed, waving her hands about.

Bashfully, Minnie explained that she took the things in and out of the oven. All the work was done by Queenie and Harry.

"Queenie, your English is coming along splendidly," Celia said, causing the little elf to blush furiously.

"Harry, I wasn't aware that you were good at cooking, these biscuits really are quite lovely," she said, finishing off a second biscuit. Harry looked down at his feet shyly muttering something about his relatives.

"Sorry, what was that Harry?" she asked, wiping her mouth with a handkerchief.

"My relatives made me cook all the meals, so I had to be good at it," he said louder, still staring at his feet. An awkward silence filled the room, and they all shifted uncomfortably.

"Well Queenie is happy that Harry is a good cook, because Harry has to help Queenie make cookies!" shouted the little elf, breaking the silence. Smiling appreciatively at the elf, Harry giggled and flicked more icing at her. A full on icing war broke out until Celia intervened, pulling apart the sniggering children.

"Now, go get cleaned up for dinner, we can't have you two getting icing in your food," she told them, pushing them off to the bathrooms. She frowned at what Harry had said, and made a point to talk to him about it later. She knew that his relatives treated him badly, but she wasn't sure to what extent.

"Minnie, would you and Queenie like to join us for dinner tonight?" Celia asked, helping Minnie pack away the biscuits. Celia and Tee had quite a good relationship with their house elf, often doing things together. They were extremely against the mistreatment of elves, and tried to make sure that their elves were constantly happy. Minnie and Queenie had their own little rooms behind the kitchen, and were allowed to take time off if they wanted. They were also allowed to wear clothes, and would only ever by fired with clothes if it was explicitly said, although that would never happen as Minnie was very good at her job.

"No thank you master Celia, Minnie has many things to do now that Master Harry has joined us. Queenie would probably quite like to though, if that's alright. She is really liking Master Harry," Minnie smiled, happy that her daughter had found a friend, even if Harry wasn't quite a house elf.

"I'm sure that would make Harry quite welcome. I'll let them both know," Celia said softly, leaving the room to go get ready for dinner.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Dinner was quite an enjoyable event, thought Harry as he worked his way through his meal. Queenie was there, and they both giggled at each other the whole time, poking each other under the table. Celia and Tee were both as nice as could be, not yelling at him once the whole night. Harry still couldn't believe his fortune in meeting up with them. He still didn't know why they wanted to help him, but he would ask after dinner.

Harry was still in a little bit of shock at how extremely lucky he was right now. He was having trouble soaking it all in, it was so amazing. In comparison to living with the Dursleys', this was heaven! He had his _own room_, and he could wander around the house without getting yelled at. They actually _liked_ him, and wanted to talk to him! The Dursley's had scowled at him whenever he was in the same room as them, and had either ignored him or slapped him when he talked to them. Celia and Tee had told him that if he ever got hungry, he could just _ask._ He wouldn't get beat up for asking for something, he wouldn't get locked in his cupboard for being 'ungrateful', he could just ask. It was a concept so unfamiliar to Harry, that when he had tested it out that afternoon, and Minnie had given him a plate of fruit, he had nearly cried.

He only hoped that they wouldn't throw him out after a while, Harry thought as he munched on his plate of lasagne. _This is such a good dinner_, Harry thought, happy that he hadn't had to cook it for once. _I wonder if I could cook like this... I'll have to ask Minnie if I can help out in the kitchens._ He looked at everyone else at the table, who seemed totally comfortable there, and enjoying the light conversation that was flowing freely. Grinning positively at Queenie, he finished off his main. As he made to stand up, he was surprised when all their plates disappeared and a smaller plate appeared where his old one was.

"Harry, you weren't thinking of leaving without dessert, were you?" Tee questioned, aghast at the concept of not having dessert. Harry's mouth dropped.

"You mean that I can have dessert, TOO?" He squeaked, now completely lost.

"Of course, you silly billy, everyone has dessert! Isn't that right Queenie?" the man laughed. Queenie bobbed her head up and down, jumping in her seat.

At that, a large plate of chocolate tart popped up in the middle of the table, and started serving itself to them. Blinking furiously, it only took a second for Harry to dive into his serving. Smiling, he thanked the gods for bringing him to Celia and Tee.


	5. Chapter 5 Could Have Been Loved

A.N/ Oh my god someone please save me, my internet is so unreliable it's terrible. This chapter is just over 8k, but it seems kinda less, so sorry. Thank you for reading and following and adding this to your favourites and reviewing and ahhhh it makes me happy! Erm, if you guys have any ideas or like, ways to improve the story, please let me know.

Disclaimer: Sometimes I enjoy reading other people's disclaimers, because they really get into it. I also enjoy talking to people who have enough common sense to realise that if I DID own Harry Potter, which I obviously don't, the quality of the books would be so low, that no one would actually buy them.

After dinner, Harry had disappeared for an hour or two, leaving Celia and Tee with plenty of time to talk about what they had gathered from him that day. Both were concerned at the implicated abuse he had suffered. The fact that he flinched anytime anyone touched him was not lost on them.

"I can't believe Lily let them take him," Tee said, disbelieving that his old friend would have let this go. "She knew that Petunia _hated_ us, and 'our kind', and it just astounds me that she wouldn't have taken some method, written something _somewhere_ saying that Harry wasn't to go to her sister. Merlin, I even offered to take the boy when they first went into hiding!" Shaking his head in dismay, he remembered the day that Lily had told him.

_Start flashback_

"Tee," she had said, her eyes bloodshot and darting around. Lily had been a complete wreck recently, with Dumbledore freaking her out, a new baby, and James stressing. It was enough to almost drive her off the plot.

"Tee, there is something really important I have to tell you. I-I... I need to leave. James and I, we..." she rushed, frantically wiping the tears from her eyes. "There is a thing, and it's putting us and everyone we love in danger Tee... I just... I just can't watch my friends die for me..." she had sobbed. Tee had wrapped his arms around her, crying himself. All their friends knew that James and Lily would eventually have to go into hiding, but it didn't make it any easier. Chances were, they wouldn't see their friends alive again, and the last time they would, James and Lily would be running for their lives. He just nodded his head, not saying a word.

"We're taking Harry, Tee. It's..." she shuddered, and buried her face in his chest. Tee had stepped back, aghast at this. They had talked about what they would do in that kind of situation, and Lily had always said that she would leave Harry behind, so that if Voldemort did come for them, he wouldn't get to Harry.

"But Lils, you said that if you ever needed to leave, you woul... you would leave Harry with someone else, so that he would get mislead!" he had said, distraught for Harry.

"I know," Lily had sobbed, totally breaking down. "I know..." she whispered, "I just love him so much, and James and I, we can... we can protect him!" she sobbed. Deciding not to push it, Tee had just comforted her, apathetic for her and James, who had only just started their new family.

_End flashback_

Clearing his mind, Tee brought his thoughts back to the conversation at hand, and Celia was sadly shaking her head at something she was saying. The whole thing was rather messed up.

"I mean," she was saying, "I knew that Petunia was the rotten sister of the two, but to abuse your own family? I can't believe it!" she cried, clasping Tee's callused hands tightly. "Do you know what he said when I noticed he was good at cooking?" She asked him, her eyes wide and sad.

"He said, he said "My relatives made me cook all the meals so I had to be good at it." He's NINE." Flinging her hands in the air, Celia ranted a bit more about appropriate chores for a nine year old, stopping when Tee put a warm hand to her face. She leaned into it, her body visibly relaxing and a tentative smile drifting across her face.

"Tee, I don't know what to do. I know you wanted to take him from the beginning, and maybe we should have insisted more, but I don't know how to deal with damaged children! Merlin, I barely know how to deal with normal kids..." Celia sighed, pleading with Tee for help, her eyes watery and her heart heavy.

Tee sighed.

"Celia, love, I don't know what to do either. He flinches every time we touch him, and is uncomfortable around large crowds. That's something I think we will have to work on more with time. We have to keep in mind that we _have_ only had him for a day, and even in that day he has drastically warmed up to us. Merlin only knows what would have happened if he was left there any longer."

"Yes, I think you're right... We'll just have to ease our way up to him, get him more comfortable at first. We have two whole years until he has to go to Hogwarts, and until then, I think we should just focus on training him and relaxing him," Celia sighed, making a decision. A loud crashing noise came from the kitchen followed by bouts of gut laughter. She made a mental note to go investigate later. Remembering something from earlier that day, she gasped.

"Oh, by the way, I'm not sure what's up with his magic. Most children have their first bout of accidental magic by age 6 or 7, and Harry is an exceptionally powerful child, even at this age. I can tell by just touching him. I assume that he's done little bits of magic before, but why nothing strong enough to register on our wards?" she pondered, concerned about whether there could be a block placed on Harry's magic. Blocks were very dangerous, and illegal in every single country around the world, because if done badly, they could render a wizard or witch magic-less. This was extremely painful and potentially lethal. Celia only hoped to Merlin that it wasn't the case.

Thankfully for her, Tee had an answer,

"Celia, I suspect that he's spent most of his magical potential as a child on healing his body. You and I both know well that those beasts probably beat him daily, and in turn, his magic would be flat out trying to repair the done damage." Smiling in relief, Celia nodded.

_She's so pretty when she smiles..._ Tee thought before he could stop himself. _Oh damn, I shouldn't have thought that!_ _Just keep looking serious Tee, grimace and wave... Just grimace and wave..._

"Something else though, regarding his magic. When we went and got his wand, something peculiar happened. When he picked up his wand, the usual sparks appeared and all, and it was all normal, BUT," she said, staring him in the eyes, "But, immediately after the sparks appeared, I swear on my magic, he moved a bit. Not as in moved his arm or something, as in he moved across the room. I didn't see him physically move or anything, but one second he was directly in front of me, and the next he was right by the window. No time had passed at all, nothing else was out of place, but he seemed quite distressed. The old wandmaker noticed nothing, bless him, but I just... something doesn't seem right about it..." she trailed off, deep in thought.

Both adults were considering the situation, replaying the situations in their heads; the wand shop, and when they had found the Dursleys' frozen in their kitchen, belt in hand.

"I really think this is something that we should monitor for a while... maybe make some inquiries, because I don't want him to turn up at Hogwarts and do something suspicious. We don't even know what it is yet..." Celia mused, scratching her chin. Another loud crash came from the kitchen interrupting their thoughts, accompanied by a high pitch squealing and more laughter. Sharing a concerned glance with Tee, Celia got up and ran to the kitchen as fast as she could, a confused Tee trailing behind her.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

After dessert, Harry had been particularly struck by the amazing cooking he had sampled that night. It was the best meal he had ever had, and he could only assume that Celia and Tee had similar meals daily. His curiosity peaked, he had approached Minnie after dessert and asked if she could share with him the recipe she used for the chocolate tart, which had been his favourite out of the meal. The little elf had stifled a sob at this, delighted that Master Harry had enjoyed Minnie's food. She had not only agreed to share the recipe with him, but also insisted that he come to the kitchen so that she could show him how to make the tart himself. Quickly agreeing, he helped Minnie with the plates, and they left for the kitchen with Queenie, who was sitting on Harry's shoulders plaiting his hair. Celia and Tee didn't notice this, as they left to go find a more private room to chat in.

Arriving in the kitchen with the two elves, Harry was stunned, looking around the room. He didn't see a pantry anywhere, or any ingredients to use for cooking.

"Minnie, how did you cook dinner if there aren't any ingredients? At my relatives, the ingredients have to be out for me to use them..." Harry asked, raising his eyebrows at the excited elf. Minnie opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by an excited Queenie, who knew the answer.

"Ooh, ooh we keeps the ingred-i-ents outta the kitchen so Master Tee dunn't eat them! Mummy keeps them in a speckle place! We **pop** them in when we wants so be using them, Harry!" she squealed. Harry smiled at this, as she had used his name, rather than Master Harry. They had had an argument about what she would call him, and Harry was happy to see that she had listened.

Minnie nodded at Queenie's reply, satisfied with it mostly.

"Master Tee often used to wake up at the nights, he did, and eat everything, so Missus Celia told us to pop it away so he doesn't get fat," she said, patting her little stomach under her uniform. Queenie joined in, drumming on her little dress and jumping all around the kitchen.

"Cook! Cook! We should be cookings, Harry!" she yelled, eager to get started. Minnie popped her back over, pinching her cheek and telling her to calm down. Settling down, she sat on a kitchen stool with a massive grin on her face. Minnie giggled softly at this, and looked up to Harry.

"Master Harry, what would youse like to be taught cooking?" she asked, struggling a little bit with her words as Queenie was bumping into her shoulder, rocking on her kitchen stool.

Laughing at Queenie, Harry thought for a bit, before firmly deciding, "Chocolate Tart please Minnie. The one tonight was delicious." Minnie squirmed with glee at this, happy that Harry liked her food.

"Yes Master Harry, Minnie will pop in the ingredients." With a pop, suddenly the kitchen counter was full of fresh ingredients. Harry blinked his eyes at this, still getting used to seeing magic used.

"You didn't even use a wand, or move your hands, Minnie!" he exclaimed, completely confused.

"House elf magics! Magics House elf!" Queenie squeaked, trying to explain to Harry. Harry looked to Minnie to clarify.

"Masters Celia and Tee use wizards magic, Master Harry, and theys be getting their magics from their cores. Their wands take from there, and they has to be using it unless they is very powerful," she explained, thinking to herself that Harry was probably very powerful. She could feel his core radiating through him, giving off golden pulses of sorts. It was quite a pleasant sight.

"House elf magics," she continued, "is working differently. We's the house elfs' take magics from what's around us. We don' need a wandy, or to be waving our hands. No, it is silly for a house elf to be doing this. We just feel what is around us and **pop**! So we is using magics mostly the sames, but we gets it from what is around us. This is why house elf's cannot work for Muggles, yes..."

"Oh, so it's exactly the same as Celia and Tee's but you guys take from the air?" Harry asked, confirming what he thought. Both elfs nodded their heads enthusiastically, excited to be able to teach Harry something. _Oh, that's pretty neat,_Harry thought, _Maybe I can learn that too. It would be might useful, even if I have a wand..._

Making a note to ask about it after they had finished cooking, Harry nodded, and motioned for Minnie to begin to tell him how to cook the tart.

Minnie started listing the ingredients there, pointing them out to Harry. **A.N/** This is a legit recipe guys, I don't know if it works, but feel free to try it and tell me how it goes.

They had,

225g of plain flour, which Queenie found amusing to throw at Harry, turning him white.

75g of icing sugar, which Queenie was also fascinated with, but mostly because it was sweet.

A pinch of salt

150g of butter

1 free range egg, and 1 free range egg yolk for the pastry, and 3 free range eggs for the filling.

450ml of single cream

600g of milk chocolate, which was decreased in size once Harry found it.

150ml of whole milk.

After they had measured everything out, Minnie popped in a sheet of paper with the method written in it.

"This is Minnie's mother's recipe, Master Harry. It is secret recipe that passes down Minnie's family. You must be promising not to be telling, yes?" Minnie looked at Harry very seriously, clutching the sheet to her chest. Harry very earnestly stared back, raising his right hand in the air and proclaiming,

"I Harry Potter, swear on my new set of books that I will never tell anyone Minnie's recipe." Queenie and Harry's eyes widened as a thin flow of glittering magic appeared around Harry's hand, twirling around it before disappearing into the air. Minnie gasped slightly at this, but then smiled and went back to organising the ingredients.

"Wait, Minnie what happened just then?" Harry asked nervously, lowering his hand. He was very timid about magic, seeing as he barely knew anything about it.

Looking up at him again, Minnie said, "Oh, Master Harry, that was a magical oath that was. Very powerful wizarding magics. Master Harry cannot ever break his oath nows, he physi-cally can't."

Blinking, Harry processed it.

"Oh." Was all he said, as he moved to look at the method sheet.

They then proceeded to start the tart, Minnie helping Harry with all the steps, explain what mixed with what to create a certain reaction. The tart was particularly difficult for Harry, even though he was quite adept at cooking. Everything had to be done at the right time, and with the exact measurements. Queenie helped a little bit, occasionally tipping over bowls full of mixture, earning lots of laughter. They had to start over at least twice because of bowl tipping, which Queenie seemed to find extremely funny.

Harry followed the method like a hawk, listening to Minnie at the same time. The recipe said to,

1. For the shortcrust, mix together the flour and sugar, then rub together the flour, sugar, salt and butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Then beat together the egg yolk and whole egg and slowly add these, mixing until the pastry forms a ball. Wrap the dough and chill for at least half an hour.

2. Preheat the oven at 160°C/Gas 3.

3. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to 2mm thickness. Use to line a 28cm/4cm tart ring placed on a baking sheet. Rest the lined tart ring in the fridge for 20 mins.

3. Line the filled tart ring with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans to keep the dough from losing its shape, and bake blind for about 20 mins. Remove the greaseproof paper and baking beans and return to the oven for 5 to 8 mins or until the shortcrust is starting to turn golden.

4. Turn the oven down to 140°C/Gas 1.

5. For the filling, bring the cream and milk to the boil and pour over the chocolate and stir until chocolate and cream are mixed. Allow to cool for 5 mins. Beat the eggs then add to the chocolate and mix well.

6. Fill the shortcrust with the chocolate filling. Carefully place in the middle of the oven and bake for 30 to 40 mins. Or until the filling appears set but with a slight wobble.

7. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

**A.N/** ergh I hope you can kind of see what I was getting at here with the cooking, but here's the recipe for the tart in case you actually want to cook it, .

After they had taken the tart out and let it cool, they were just about to serve it when Queenie ran into the giant pile of bowls they had used and put aside to be cleaned. Harry ran over and pulled the tiny elf out from under the bowls, and burst into laughter as he saw that Queenie was covered in flour and bits of batter. Minnie saw this too, and started cackling, rolling on the floor as she did. The tiny elf, who had no idea why they were laughing, was very annoyed at all this, and started squirming around in Harry's arms, squealing and making all sorts of noise.

In the midst of all the laughing and squeaking, none of them noticed Celia and Tee burst in until Tee very loudly proclaimed,

"What the absolute fuck is going on here?" That certainly got their attention, and the three chefs, all gasping for air, turned and finally acknowledged the adults. Celia and Tee were standing in the kitchen doorway, looking slightly out of breath and completely confused. To be fair, from their end, this was probably the most unexplainable scene they had come across in a while, and that was saying something.

Their recently acquired 9 year old was sprawled across the flour covered kitchen floor, holding what looked like a squirming bag of flour that was both covered in brown batter and emitting high pitched squeaking noises. Meanwhile, there trusty house elf Minnie was rolling on the floor, grasping at her stomach with tears in her eyes from laughing too hard. Harry was also covered in flour, and making strange gasping noises as the tiny bag of flour kicked at him.

"Let...Queenie...GO!" The bag screeched, giving one big kick at Harry, and managing to get away. _Oh,_ Celia and Tee thought,_ so the bag was Queenie. Wonder how that happened._ Harry sat up with a slight frown on his face and chocolate batter all over his clothes.

Queenie had run over to Minnie and was now pulling at her mother's dress, simultaneously turning it slightly brown. She had gotten an awful lot of batter on herself. Celia shot a quick cleaning spell at the small elf, cleaning her off. She then sent a much larger more powerful spell at the entire kitchen, rendering it sparkling.

"Can someone please explain to me what happened here that ended up with the kitchen that messy?" she asked, trying to actually work out what the hell had gone down there.

With laughter in her eyes, Minnie pushed Queenie off her to reply to Celia,

"Minnie and Queenie...*giggle* was teaching Master Harrys to make chocolate tarts we was, we made one, *giggle*, is cooling on the table Missus," she said, hiccupping a bit along the way.

"And we were just finishing off when Queenie kind of... ehhh," Harry tried, failing to explain what had happened, making vague gestures with his hands. Celia's eyes widened in realisation as she saw the upturned bowls, and Tee caught on not too long after, resulting in the two adults restarting the laughing. Queenie frowned, still not finding it funny, and hmphed.

Once all the laughing had resided, Tee finally got around to asking,

"Harry, why was Minnie teaching you to cook? I thought you were in bed or something."

Harry rushed to explain that he had asked her to, completely losing it. Harry was used to getting in trouble when being asked questions, and didn't want Minnie to suffer for helping him.

"I asked Minnie to teach me the recipe after dinner! It wasn't her fault, I promise! I'll take the blame!" He rushed, distraught. Tee's eyes widened in surprise while Celia squinted at Harry, trying to figure out why he was freaking out so much. To her, a pureblood witch who had grown up in a loving family who were understanding and never resorted to violence, a child freaking out this much after being asked a question was unexplainable. Remembering where they had retrieved Harry from, and what kind of environment that house was, she slowly put two and two together and growled in disapproval of the situation.

"Harry, we weren't going to punish you, we were just curious. You should feel free to learn anything in our house, as long as no one gets hurt." Celia growled grinding her teeth at the Dursleys'. Whoever left Harry with them would pay tenfold for what they had done when Celia found out their identity. Tee agreed with the statement and made to hug Harry, moving at him with his arms extended. Harry instantly moved to stand in front of Minnie in a defensive stance, his face contorted in apprehension.

"I was going to hug you Harry. I promise I will never do you harm in this household, under my own will. We need to relax you Harry, its no good having you flinch every time I walk near you. What can I do to help you? _Please_ let us help you," Tee pleaded, stepping back to give Harry space. This was the moment where Harry made the choice to either trust Tee and Celia, or set the battle field. There was no way he could leave the house, it being warded with magic and him being inept, and if he decided not to trust them his life would probably become much harder. On the other hand, if he did relax around them, and truly accept their help and that they meant him no harm, he would have a better life, and have people who cared about him. The only bad thing about that would be that Harry would have to learn how to love in return for love. He would have to learn how to talk to people, and how to trust that a hand gesture is a pat rather than a slap. Things that he had been taught his whole life would have to be redefined, and Harry had to be 100% sure that Celia and Tee were the people to teach him.

The two house elves were watching on with their mouths wide open in terror. Celia had taken Tee's hand and was holding it tightly, turning it white. Tee was searching Harry's fearful eyes, trying to find what he was thinking and how he could help him. There was a tense moment in the kitchen while everybody waited for what Harry was going to say. This was the first confrontation they had had in the house, and a lot weighed on it.

Seeing Tee's imploring eyes, begging Harry to trust him, Harry realised that Celia and Tee only wanted to help him. Relaxing his body, he moved away from Minnie and leant on the kitchen counter. Everybody sighed a breath of relief as the tension fled the room.

"Harry, we truly do mean what we say when we talk to you. You may learn whatever you want in our house, as long as it is with intentions to learn and use for good, not to harm. And if you wish to learn something, Tee and myself will do whatever we can to help you along the way," Celia said in a dreamy voice, looking over to the two shivering house elves. Minnie was comforting Queenie and murmuring soft nothings to her, as the smaller elf recovered from watching Master's Celia and Tee talk to Harry like that.

_They are such good house elves... Queenie will be much like her mother when she grows, and Minnie will be proud I am sure, _Celia thought fondly, briefly forgetting Harry and Tee, who had quickly forgotten the situation and moved onto the freshly baked chocolate tart.

"MMMM, THIS IS GOOD," Tee mumbled through his piece. Harry laughed at this, struggling through his own slice of tart. The two wizards started laughing at each other with chocolate on their faces and tart crammed in their cheeks. They both resembled chipmunks with their faces full of nuts and it was quite comical. Laughter entered the household again as the others joined in. They all had another slice, appreciating the new trust that they had in each other. There was still much work to be done, but progress was progress. And they would take that for now.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

After Harry had finished in the kitchen, he had been sent to go get ready for bed as the hour was late. He marvelled at the sheer size of the bathroom. There were two bathrooms he could use every day; the main public one that was the largest bathroom, and was situated in the corridor, next to one of the spare bedrooms, or his smaller ensuite in his room. He hadn't noticed the door before so he hadn't looked inside, but Celia explained that the door was charmed to only appear when the room was needed. It was a helpful trick that saved space, and Harry appreciated it. Inside his ensuite was just a toilet, sink and a small shower. Under the sink he kept all his products (all two of them), and his towels.

After cleaning up in his ensuite, Harry finally got into bed, but not before picking out a book to read in bed. He thought his selection of _Tales of Beedle the Bard_ was quite an interesting choice, as some of the stories sounded absolutely ludicrous. Harry was never allowed books at the Dursley's, so he took the chance to read as something sacred, and believed that books were to be valued. Even though _Tales of Beedle the Bard_ was a wizarding children's' book, Harry thought it would be a good place to start, or to immerse himself in wizarding lifestyle.

When Harry was halfway through the first story, Minnie popped into his room startling him, but barring a tray with a hot cup of chamomile tea on it and a biscuit. He thanked her, and she smiled at him and popped away, leaving the tea with him. Munching appreciatively at the biscuit he read on.

It was 9:45 when Celia and Tee knocked on his door, asking to come in.

"Come in," Harry called, putting down his book and tea. The door opened and Tee and Celia walked in, smiling at the sight of Harry reading already.

"Enjoying your book Harry?" Celia asked, admiring his choice. Harry nodded placidly, quite relaxed and a little bit sleepy. Tee was looking around for the source of the tea smell, and spotted Harry's cup, smiling even wider.

While Tee asked Minnie for a cup of tea, Celia sat down on Harry's bed and picked up the book, looking at the page he was on.

"Ah, the tale of the three brothers. That was my favourite tale when I was a child, apart from the tales of Cammy the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. I really should tell you that story sometime, but that's for later," she said in a soft dreamy voice. Sipping on his Chai tea, Tee sat down on the bed too. They both exchanged a look and nodded minutely. Tee put down his tea, and cleared his throat.

"Harry, there is something Celia and I need to talk to you about. We feel it is something that you should be aware of now that you have come to live with us." Harry noticed that Celia was shifting in her spot quite a lot and looked a little uncomfortable, if not nervous. Tee was looking exceptionally tense, and Harry took these things as a sign that something serious was about to happen. He put away his book, and wrapped his hands around his warm tea cup, nodding to show he was listening.

"To properly explain the situation to you, we will need to give you a little back story to all this." Celia hesitated, obviously plagued by what she was thinking. She ploughing on determinedly though, obviously wanting to talk about it.

"When Voldemort was in his time, there were many families who resisted against him and the darkness he brought. They fought for the good and what was right, rather than submitting to his dictatorship. These were families who lived in the light, families like the Weasleys, the Longbottoms, your family, the Potters. All these people strived to rid the world of dark lords like Voldemort, and help maintain the peace we had. As the opposition was large in number, the light families had to work very hard to keep up the fight. Voldemort's army was strong in number and in power, and it was not uncommon at all to hear an entire bloodline being wiped out overnight. The dark side were ruthless, and loved living a life of bloodshed and war. Harry, this was a time of fear. People did not know whether they would make it through the week, let alone the war. Some families resorted to... darker magics to try protect the ones they loved," she said, her voice shaking a bit on the last word. Celia's body let out a huge shiver, as she obviously tried to repress some pushed back memories. Tee wrapped his arm around her shoulder comfortingly. She nodded that she was okay, and kept going.

"Yes. Some families sought other alternatives to up keeping the safety of their families. These alternatives included running away to distant countries, far from the eye of Voldemort. Or erecting very serious magical wards around their houses, even blood wards. Some families, however, found alternatives to fighting in the light side.

"One family in specific, found a way to try and live. The head of the family, a young witch who had recently born a child, started experimenting with magic itself, twisting and tilting it to try and suit her needs. The witch often experimented on her family, which lead to side effects, such as seeing other dimensions, or other worldly creatures roaming among us. The witch experimented for years and years, and wasted away at her station, trying to come up with new magics. She was very successful at times, coming up with some of the more serious wards that are used to protect houses and properties, but this was not without cost. She distanced herself from her family, causing unnecessary pain for her child and husband." Shaking visibly at this point, Celia was clenching her fist so hard she was drawing blood.

"The husband ended up going slightly mad from the pain of the war, and losing his wife. The daughter's childhood was spent in the company of creatures that no one else could see, confiding in faries rather than her friends. It was excruciating for all of them. While this was all happening, word of the witch's talent and potential threat to his reign, Voldemort started aiming some of his powers at the family. Knowing that if she continued to work around her family, she would end up getting them killed, the witch had a vital decision to make. To her it was an easy choice. She had to leave her family to save them from death.

"To make it seem convincing to both sides, the woman staged her own death, 'killing' herself in front of her own daughter. It was the toughest thing she had ever had to do, but it was done. Running away, she found refuge in other countries for a number of years, before returning to Britain. By the time she returned, the dark lord had been vanquished, even if temporarily, and a fake prophecy had been put up. A saviour child was being heralded by the public, and the witch rejoiced, thinking she could go back to her family. Her joy was short lived though, as she discovered the illegitimate prophecy, and that the dark lord lived on. She made it her task to help the poor child they had thrust the task of destroying the dark lord with, and keep an eye out for him, waiting to help him when he joined the world again. She waited out her years, making a friend or two on the side, and keeping a low profile in the community.

"The witch in question... struggled to forget her past for the first few years, constantly thinking about returning to her family," Celia continued, taking a sip of tea from Tee to wet her dry throat. Wiping the blood from her palms, she looked at the wide eyed child in front of her and went on.

"She always knew that when the time was right, she would finally join her family again and they could be whole again. It was a tough battle, staying out of their lives, but she knew her little daughter would grow into a beautiful girl with the love of her father, regardless of his mental state. The family she would return to had kept the same name even after all the years she had been gone. The Lovegood family... had gotten a reputation of being slightly mad, and more than a little eccentric. The witch, Celia, would check up on them every year or two, and read their newspaper often," she said, stopping as Harry gasped loudly in realisation. Coving his mouth with his hand, Harry's eyebrows receded into his hairline, but nodded for her to go on.

"Before the war, the Lovegood's had been one of the more respected pureblood families. They are still well known among the higher circles, but only as a long running joke. When I return to the wizarding world under my true identity, rather than Celia Celestia (her cover name), I shall show those bigoted murderers why the name Lovegood was respected in the first place." There was a fire in Celia's eyes, a determination, that Harry could only fear. He would feel bad for the people who were in Celia's mind at the moment, but it sounded like they deserved every little bit of punishment that they would get.

"Teemixis Montros, or just Tee, has been my partner all through the journey, and was my best friend through my Hogwarts years. He was the only one who knew that I fled, and loyally joined me. I owe my sanity to him, and I owe him my life probably. Without him, I would be either dead, or mentally lost. It is not something I could ever repay him in all my life. We have both pledged to help you on your journey Harry, but now that you know who we are, and what we carry on our shoulders, you must realise that if you _do _opt to stay with us, there will also be a bounty on our heads," Celia finished, with a loud breath. Tee looked tired and old at this, like he had been running for a thousand lifetimes, and Celia just looked sombre. Even though they both looked like they had been through hell and back more times than he could count, the fact that they were still here was a testimony to their skills.

It wasn't even a decision for Harry.

"Of course I want to stay with you. You trust me enough to tell me your entire life story, and let me in your house. That's more than anyone has ever given me. And that story alone was probably more words than the Durlsey's have ever spoken to me combined, so _that's_ definitely more than anyone has ever given me. I can't even tell you how much I appreciate your trust in me, and the only thing I can do to repay that, is trust you back. So I trust you." He said simply, earnestly staring them in the eyes.

Celia and Tee were honestly too tired to do much other than smile warmly at him, and wrap their arms limply around him. Harry still had a question though, even after that massive story.

"Guys, what was that thing about the prophecy though?" Celia and Tee looked up quite alert at this, giving important looks to each other, before Tee decided to take the lead.

"Harry, before the dark lord was defeated, before you were even born I'm pretty sure, there was a prophecy made, or supposedly made. The 'prophecy' said that a child of your exact description would defeat the dark lord, and that the child would have powers the dark lord knows not. This was exactly what the people needed at the time, so of course no one questioned its legitimacy. Celia and I did though, as it was almost too perfect. A child born specifically for exactly what they needed? I don't think so. We thought that someone may have made up some bull story and thrust it on a random child, e.g. you.

"After some searching that was _definitely_ legal, we found evidence that the woman who made that prophecy was not in fact under a true Seer's trance when she made it, but rather under a forced trance. There are certain dark magics that a wizard or witch can use to cause a Seer to go into a trance and make a prophecy. The prophecy will still be recorded as it was still made under a trance by a Seer, but it will hold absolutely no truth. This is what we think your prophecy was. Fake."

Harry was positively furious at this. He was enraged. He wasn't a stupid child, and he had quickly put together what they were saying. Harry never _had to be_ the prophecy child. He never had to have this lifestyle. His parents had never had to go into hiding to protect him, he never was supposed to live with the Dursley's, he was never supposed to have his scar. He was supposed to have lived a normal life, with his parents. Harry would have grown up with an actual family who didn't beat him to death every other day, and who actually loved and cared for him, rather than some bloated idiot man and his stick insect wife who spoilt their whale of a son into thinking he was the sun itself. All this was forced onto him because some CRACKPOT IDIOT thought it would be funny to fake a prophecy. Some moron thought that the answer to their problems would come through faking a prophecy and simultaneously destroying a young family's life. Harry's family.

Harry's face must have betrayed some of his inner most thoughts, or maybe it was his body shaking positively with rage, or the tears falling from his eyes. Either way, Celia and Tee saw Harry's tears and purple face and quickly shot a spell at him, specifically a calming spell, and the incensed 9 year old stopped shaking and just started crying. Crying might actually have been an understatement. Harry bawled.

Aghast at how Harry had reacted to the spell, the two adults immediately started smothering the boy with tissues and hugs. To no avail though, as Harry screamed out his pain over his lost family and life, over all the pain he had suffered, all the turmoil he had put up with. They stayed like that for half an hour, the two adults wiping up Harry's tears and softening his screams. Harry's blood shot eyes finally stopped leaking water, and Celia and Tee sat back, quite depressed on his behalf. They had both known Lily and James personally, and had been close friends of them. It still affected them both, but they knew what it felt like, realising that your friend's deaths were unnecessary.

"I could have been loved," was all Harry whimpered, lying back onto his pillows, exhausted from the ordeal. Celia pouted sadly at this, mourning with Harry at what he had lost.

_Harry deserves to live the rest of his life to the fullest. He deserves to be happy, _Celia thought to herself, determined to help him emotionally as much as physically. _I'm going to do some more research on the prophecy, because that _can't_ be all there is to it... No one just does that for no reason..._

Tee was also deep in thought. _He may have been deprived of love up to this stage in his life, but I can put my everything into making the rest of his life good! I will love him like my own; it is my duty as Lily's friend._

Both adults now had new goals regarding Harry, and were both resolute to see it done. Harry couldn't have been in better hands.

Once Harry was feeling a little better, the two adults started to leave, giving him space to go to sleep. On his way out, Tee cast a charm on Harry's ceiling, causing it to show the constellations, each star twinkling brightly, and labelled. It was much like the Hogwarts ceiling, but this one would hopefully teach Harry the stars, rather than just look pretty.

Celia stayed behind after Tee left, and read with him the rest of the book. This was the first time in Harry's life that anyone had ever read to him or stayed with him at night, and it was like having a guardian angel watching over him. With the sparkling stars and Celia's dreamy voice reading to him, Harry quickly fell asleep, dreaming of Babbity Rabbity and the Milky Way.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

When Celia left Harry's room, she saw Tee sitting next in the Library doorframe, looking very resolute but at the same time, rather conflicted.

"Tee are you alright?" she asked softly, not wanting to wake Harry. The man's eyes met Celia's, and she could see they were swirling with thoughts and decisions. She knew this look well, as it was exactly how she was feeling. She sat down next to him, leaning her head softly on his shoulder. Tee smiled a little bit, glad for the comfort, but still strained about the problem at hand.

They were both thinking about how damaged Harry was. It was such a tragedy, as they had known him as a baby, and you couldn't find a happier baby anywhere else. Lily and James had been completely taken by him, and had loved him like the stars love the moon. It was the picture perfect family, and the only thing standing between Harry and that family was some idiot who decided to fake a prophecy. For Harry to find out like that was heartbreaking.

Celia and Tee were thinking along the same lines; what they had do to help Harry. Because they had been in hiding for the past decade or so, they were limited in what they could do. Neither of them had powerful connections, or people who could help them out. It was just them. Neither of them were employed either. Their income for the years had been doing jobs or taking money out of the family vaults (they would replace it later, as not to raise suspicion). Now that they had a child to raise, Celia needed to find a way to bring in a steady income. As they had discussed previously, Tee would be in charge of actually teaching and training Harry. This was because Celia was more academically achieved, with 7 NEWTS compared to Tee's 5. It would be easier for her to get a job than Tee.

It wasn't just financially that they now had problems. They had to re-enter the wizarding world without raising any suspicion. Two fully grown adults appearing out of nowhere with no backstory but full qualifications was going to raise a few eyebrows. They could easily avoid being recognised, due to their rings, but there was still much they had to do.

"I think that I might start looking for a job," Celia said, breaking the silence that had been resting on the pair.

"That sounds good. Try looking in the Ministry, the closer you are to them, the more information we might get."

Celia nodded, taking that on. She knew that there were always positions open in the Ministry, but she also knew that for all starting employees they did a full background check.

"We're going to need to come up with a backstory, otherwise one background check will be the end of us," Tee said tiredly.

Agreeing, Celia nodded her head lethargically. She was starting to drift on, and had to shake herself to keep her eyes open. It had been over a decade since she had looked after a child, and it was already taking its toll on her.

"We can get Harry to help with that in the morning..." she yawned, rubbing her eyes.

"I think he'd probably like that."

"Yeah..."

Lifting her head to look at him, Celia stared into his troubled eyes.

"What are you thinking about?"

Tee sat up and stared thoughtfully at her.

"I'm thinking about how unprepared we are to look after this child. Yes, he is nine years old and still only a boy, but he is probably more mature than me at times. Have you seen the hollowness in his eyes? That is not the look of a nine year old..." He confessed, unloading the weight from his shoulders.

"Tee, I doubt there are many people who can look after an abused child straight away. They all have to-" she yawned, covering her mouth. "They all have to learn as they go. We have two years to get it right. That's time enough."

Making a noise of dissent, Tee looked away.

"I'm also thinking of what to train him. I don't want him to turn up at Hogwarts with absolutely nothing. I'm going to teach him the absolute basics first, I think... Wand holding and theory or something... And maybe some history. He's going to hate it, but it will be better in the long run."

Celia accepted this all, looking at her hands. Particularly her ring.

"I'll go out to Diagon Alley tomorrow and get some basic books. We got some already today, so we can use those as well, but it cant hurt to expand our library."

Tee looked up at this, alert. He met her eyes and gave her a concerned look.

"Are you sure you want to go by yourself? Even with the rings, it will be the first time we've been in crowds that big in a long time. I'll come too if you want, I'm sure Harry won't mind playing with Queenie for a day," he said, worried about how Celia would react if she was to go by herself. The last time they had gone to Diagon Alley, it had gone terribly wrong. They had been recognised by several people, and had seen some of their school friends too. This was before they had their rings, and the experience was too close of a call for them to try repeat it. Now that they were able to properly disguise themselves there was less of a chance of a fuss, but it was still quite confronting.

Celia looked at him gratefully, wondering what she did to deserve such a thoughtful friend.

"That would be lovely. I'm sure that Queenie will enjoy it just as much as Harry, and that there'll be a load of baked goods when we get home."

Seeing that she was supressing another yawn, Tee stood up. It was late, later than anyone would usually be up, and they had a big day ahead of them once again. Extending his hand to her, he wearily smiled.

"Come on, let's head off. Need plenty of sleep for tomorrow."

Taking his hand, Celia stood off and allowed herself to be dropped off in her room. A moment later, and she was already in bed. Smiling softly at the snoring already coming through the walls, she nodded off.


	6. Chapter 6- Banana Sundaes

**A.N/** Okay, so I realise that the intervals between when I post are really inconsistent, and I'm sorry about that, but it's kinda more like, when is my internet strong enough to post? Anyways, I hope you like this next chapter, and by the way, was last chapter too full on? Because I had a review saying that it was a lot for a little boy to cope with, and I realise that too, but I needed to get that stuff out of the way so that Harry wasn't totally in the dark for the next decade. But yeah, please let me know if it was too much, and I'll take that into consideration.

SOrry this chapter is shorter, i just needed to get it out. Enjoy the chapter, and please review!

When Harry woke up the next morning, it was to the smell of thickly buttered toast, fried eggs, and bacon. Bolting upright, he took a moment to compose himself, remembering where he was and why it was not him cooking breakfast. Slowly frowning, Harry remembered last night's conversation. He was still struggling to make sense of the first half about Celia and Tee, as the second bit kept on pushing its way forward to his thoughts. Still quite upset, Harry had to wipe away a stray tear that he noticed had fallen down his cheek.

_Come on Potter, pull yourself together. If you can stare a drunk Uncle Vernon in the eye, you can damn well get up in the morning, _he thought, wincing at the thought of a drunk Vernon. The man was a menace sober; intoxicated he was deadly. He grimly smirked at the memory of the paper proclaiming their arrest, thankful that they were paying for their actions.

In an attempt to take his mind of the more miserable topics, Harry thought about how much fun he had yesterday with Minnie and Queenie. Thinking about when Queenie knocked over the stack of bowls, a feeble smile crept onto his face, stretching his mouth into a ridiculous smile. Harry was already feeling a little better, when he remembered why he had been sad in the first place.

_Propheccyyyy..._ an obscure part of his mind sang to him, taunting him with the word. Grimacing, Harry mentally berated himself for bring it up again. He sat in his bed for the next few minutes trying to rid his mind of the thoughts. Despite his efforts, Harry was still deeply upset about the fake prophecy. Who wouldn't be? His entire mess of a childhood was unnecessary, and it was all the fault of some idiot. By the sounds of it, no one even had a clue who the dupe was.

Stuck in his own head, reliving last night, Harry was only roused by the ever delicious smell of breakfast that had once again managed to seep through his door. Now adorned with a large grin on his face, Harry got out of bed, patting his grumbling stomach. Quickly exchanging his pyjamas for more appropriate breakfast wear, Harry dashed out of his room, down the stairs, and onto a kitchen chair.

Tee was hunched over on a kitchen stool, intently staring at a stopwatch. As Harry ran in, the timer was stopped.

"Huh, 5 minutes and 48 seconds. You'll have to do better than that Harry, if you want to get breakfast next time."

Harry's mouth swung open. The stout man looked up at him with an evil grin on his face.

"There's no more breakfast?" He exclaimed, horror-struck at the prospect of missing out. Seeing Harry's wide eyed expression, Tee burst out laughing.

"Wait, what?" asked Harry, now confused. Tee who was rolling in his seat was utterly unhelpful. Smiling fondly, Celia walked over bearing two heavily laden plates of food. Narrowing his eyes, Harry glared at Tee. Seeing this, the man laughed even harder.

"Stop messing with him Tee, it's not proper. Harry, don't mind him, he's just being irritating." These words were followed by a sharp slap to Tee's head, courtesy of Celia. The man immediately sobered, withering under Celia's glare. Smirking, Harry noted that apparently the only thing that could restrain Tee was the prospect of food, or Celia. _Totally whipped_, Harry thought.

Now grinning again, Harry eagerly dug into his hot meal. Groaning in pleasure at the taste of the buttery toast and crispy bacon and eggs, Harry smiled appreciatively at Celia, who chuckled at his face of delight.

"You're welcome, Harry." She sat down next to him with her own plate. Harry curiously noticed that it had plain crackers on it, with only a small side of hummus as a sauce. Perhaps she had dietary restrictions?

Tee also muttered his thanks through his food, earning a disapproving glance from Celia. Swallowing his food, he looked away cowardly.

There was a comfortable silence for a while as everyone ate their food. It was broken when Harry, who was struggling with the portion size, being only used to measly servings, asked what the plan for the day was.

Swallowing his food quickly and hastily wiping his mouth, Tee answered.

"Well, Celia and I have to go do some errands and things now that we've got you to care for," he said, wiggling his thick eyebrows at Harry, "so we're going to be away for most of the day. We've asked Minnie and Queenie to look after you for a day, and we- or I, expect there to be at least 4 baked dishes ready when we get home," he finished, thinking fondly of the baked treats. He was obviously joking, but Harry took it as an order. Nodding his head firmly, he remained silent.

"Harry, dear, you don't actually have to make 4 dishes for us, that's just Tee," Celia said, concerned at the determined look on Harry's face. "Once again, he is thinking with his stomach rather than his head."

This calmed him down greatly, and he proceeded to eat his food happily. It took him a while, but he eventually cleaned off his plate.

Almost as soon as the food was finished and the dishes disappeared, Celia and Tee stood up, putting on some heavy coats.

"We best be off Harry, we have a lot to do today," Tee said, patting his rounded tummy. Harry followed the two adults to the foyer, where he saw the front door. Hugging him goodbye, the adults walked through the front door and popped away.

Sighing, Harry plodded back up the stairs. As soon as he walked into the kitchen, he saw the giddy little elves. Queenie was perched on top of a kitchen stool, wearing a tiny pink dress, whilst Minnie was dressed in her usual uniform. Both were smiling at him as he walked in.

"Harry!" Queenie squealed, thrilled that she could spend the entire day cooking with Harry. She bolted up to him and wrapped her arms around his legs, giggling furiously the whole time. Minnie smiled at him.

"Masters' Celia and Tee have said that Minnie must be looking after Master Harry for the day. What is Master Harry wanting to do?" she asked politely. Thinking for a minute, Harry looked down at Queenie, who was positively shivering with energy.

"Can we make some biscuits?" he asked, earning an ear piercing squeal from the small elf. Minnie simply nodded. She then popped the ingredients for the biscuits (triple chocolate fudge), and put them on the counter. Harry and the two immediately started prepping them and cooking, and in 45 minutes flat, they had two steaming trays of chocolately biscuits.

"Yaaay! We's done it!" Queenie screamed, overjoyed at their achievement.

The next three hours were spent cooking and laughing. They now had two trays of biscuits, a dish of lasagne, a bowl of salad (Minnie decided on this), and a jug of homemade lemonade. Harry had never actually had lemonade before, so when Minnie suggested it, he was rather hesitant to make it. Nevertheless, he found that he quite enjoyed the Muggle drink- much to Minnie's satisfaction.

It was just about lunch when the jokes and giggles calmed down. Harry and Queenie were nibbling on treats while Minnie popped around cleaning up stuff. It was quite a comfortable, contented moment, and Harry was just happy to be allowed moments like this. The kitchen smelt of food, and the house was warm, contrasting against the light snow that had started to fall halfway through the lasagne.

Harry snuggled into his chair, closing his eyes in contentment, thinking over how much things had changed in the course of three days. His thoughts were interrupted when a loud screeching from outside the window sounded. Opening his eyes, he saw a very cold and very irritated looking barn owl, which seemed to have a letter attached to its leg.

"Ooh!" Minnie squeaked. "Who might that be's?" Wandering over to the window, she let the owl in. The bird shot into the room, flicking snow everywhere. Shaking itself warm, it rested on the arm of Harry's chair, staring at him expectantly. Harry looked around desperately, not sure what to do. Seeing Minnie mime taking off the letter, he gingerly plucked it off. The owl hopped off his chair and went and sat near the heater.

Cautiously, Harry inspected the letter. It was made of a thick yellowing parchment, and on the front was scrawled 'Mr Harry Potter, Undetermined Location'. Giving another confused glance at Minnie, he peeled open the back. Pulling open a thick parchment, Harry began to read the flowy letters written on it.

_Dear Harry,_

_My name is Professor Albus Percival Wulfrick Brian Dumbledore, and I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, and an old friend of your parents. It has recently come to my attention that you currently are not at your relative's house. As a concerned parental figure, I implore you to return to the safety of their house. I'm sure they are worried sick about your whereabouts, and it would do us all a great deal of good if you could return._

_I am eagerly awaiting your arrival at my school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and will be glad to see you following the path that destiny has set for you._

_Wishing you well, _

_Albus Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, on the Chocolate Frogs Cards._

The letter ended with a red stamp in the shape of a flying bird that appeared to be on fire. Putting the letter down slowly, Harry carefully looked up. The two elves were fervently looking on, waiting for him to finish reading.

"Master Harry? Is you okay?" Minnie asked hesitantly, confused about the look of mild disgust and slight confusion on his face. Squinting his eyes once more at the letter, Harry let out a jolted sigh that was laced with half-hearted self-control. He was currently trying to remember what Celia and Tee had said about Albus Dumbledore in the past, and the words 'idiot' and 'wanker' came to mind, which funnily enough, was pretty much what he got from the letter too.

Thinking it would be better not to try and say anything that could be interpreted wrong, Harry just handed the letter to Minnie, so she could read it too. The elf took the letter and read it over, whispering to Queenie what the words meant. When the two elves finished, there was a collective intake of breath.

"That is the old conker that Missus and Master is talkings about! He is a bad, _bad_ man, Master Harry! You must not be doing what he is saying!" Minnie growled out. Apparently she didn't like Albus. Queenie squealed at her mother's angry tone and popped out of the room to Merlin knows where.

Collapsing in his chair, Harry's thoughts ran wild.

_I've heard Celia and Tee talk about this man before, and Minnie seems to absolutely hate him, but what has he done so wrong? I mean, he sounded like a right prick in the letter, but some people just express concern differently... He cared about me enough to send me a letter, and he said he was looking forward to seeing me... No one has ever looked _forward_ to seeing me before... Maybe I'll show Celia and Tee at dinner tonight,_ Harry thought, conflicted in his opinions about the man.

For one, from what he had heard about the headmaster, he was a little bit crazy and completely annoying, but on the other hand, the man seemed genuinely concerned about his wellbeing. Harry was stuck, as due to his childhood, any signs of legitimate affection were amazing to him, and he relished them. This man, although sounding like an idiot while doing so, had taken the time out of his day to care about Harry. That surely must stand for something, right? Of course, he would listen to what Celia and Tee had to say on the topic, but in the end it was his decision on what to think of the man. At the moment, it was half half.

Distracted by his thoughts, Harry looked back to Minnie when she cleared her throat loudly.

"Master Harry must not be wasting his time thinkings about a silly codger like that wizard, no no no. Minnie was told to be making sure that Master Harry is havings a good day." With that, the letter in Harry's hands was popped away, and he was once again left in awe of Minnie's magic.

_I seriously have to learn that some time,_ he thought again, marvelling at how simple it all looked.

Clearing his head, Harry nodded his head to clear his thoughts.

"Okay Minnie, sorry about that. Let's go do something, I don't want to be sad today," Harry said, grinning at the fierce little house elf. Minnie lit up, happy that Harry wasn't too conflicted over the letter. She rushed over and grabbed his hand, suddenly pulling him up into the library. Harry gave a wry grin- Minnie already knew about his love of reading, and was obviously trying to use it to loosen him up. It was definitely working.

"Master Harry, sometimes when Masters Celia was upset about things, she would be coming in here and Minnie and her would be playings a game!" She explained happily. "Because Minnie's has to be looking afters the Library, she is reading the books too! We is used to be playing a game where Mistress Celia picks out a book and sees if Minnie has been reading that one! For every book that Minnie knows, Minnie gets 1 point, and for every book that Minnie doesn't, Mistress Celia is getting a point!"

Intrigued, Harry sat down in a comfy chair.

"What happens to the person with the most points at the end?"

"Oooh, they is getting to pick desserts for the nights, yes yes!" Minnie squealed.

Harry was never really that competitive, as it was discouraged by the Dursley's, but with such a high prize on the line, he was instantly in game mode. An fervent grin came across his face, and he said with vehemence,

"Let's do it."

With those words, he sprung up out of his chair and started picking up the most obscure books and showing them to Minnie, who amazingly knew all of them. Twenty minutes in, and an impressive pile of books on the floor later, the score was 24-1 (Harry had found a book called _Top 100 Hottest Childrens Names of 1874_, which Minnie had not read) and both participants were exhausted. Harry had been running around for 20 minutes straight, and Minnie had been running with him.

Jogging up to the furthest bookshelf at the very back of the library, Harry looked through the old shelve. Suddenly stopping, he considered a dark red book which had several dark stains on it, called _Darkest Arts to Tarnish Thy Soul_. Reaching to pick it out, he almost touched it when something inside him screamed at him to avoid the book. Withdrawing his hand, he stepped back, slightly creeped out by the tome. Grabbing the book next to it (_26 Different Ways to Wash A Walnut)_, he ran up to Minnie, and thrust the book at her triumphantly.

Flicking through it, the elf made a noise of defeat. Harry jumped up and down for a bit, revelling in his success, and then soon sat down in a chair again. He was completely beat from all the running.

"Is Master Harry tired?" Minnie asked, watching the boy puffing in the arm chair. Harry just nodded in response, too tired to do anything else.

"Is Master Harry wanting something to help?" She asked again, wanting to keep on moving. Harry nodded again, shutting his eyes and breathing deeply.

With a soft pop, the elf disappeared, only to reappear two seconds later with a bottle of bright orange liquid. She pushed it into Harry's hand, who jugged it immediately.

He felt something spreading throughout his body, and suddenly felt more energised than he had in ages. Feeling like he could run ten marathons and still have energy, Harry perked up in his chair and grinned at the small elf.

"Hey Minnie. How are you? Whatcha doin'? Can we go out? Can we do stuff? I wanna go for a swim! NO- I wanna cook! NO- I wanna do STARJUMPS!" Harry said very quickly. Minnie found this quite amusing and just grinned at him.

"Minnie Minnie Minnie, look at me, I'm running, look look!" He said as he ran around the sitting area. When he almost ran into her, Minnie decided that maybe she should have given him a smaller dose. Still running, Harry started threading through the shelves, cackling madly the whole time.

The house elf decided that she had definitely given him too much, and waited until he ran back out to her, before flicking a thin finger at him. The boy immediately slowed down and stuttered into a walk. With a sheepish grin on his face, he walked over to his chair.

"Hehehe, sorry about that?" Harry offered, slightly embarrassed about what had occurred just 10 seconds ago.

Shaking her head, Minnie said, "No, it was not Master Harry's fault. Minnie gave him too much potion for such a small boy. That potion is usually made for big wizards like Master Tee."

On the topic of Potions, which Harry was very interested in, Harry had a few questions. He was sure that Minnie knew a lot on the topic, as she probably helped Celia and Tee make some of their potions, and also read the potions books in the library, but he wasn't too wise about the subject himself. Having read one on the topic, he knew the absolute basics, such as what cauldrons are best for certain potions, and how to properly handle the ingredients, but it was definitely something he wanted to read into more.

Considering the fact that he had the whole day to do not much, Harry decided that he wanted to look into the subject more, and seeing as Minnie was probably the best he could get at the moment, it was her that he was going to ask first.

"Minnie," he said, "If I wanted to look into the subject of potions, where would I go in the library?" The little elf thought for a moment, before leading him to a section a couple shelves back, which was full of thick musty books.

"If Master Harry is wanting to be reading books, Minnie can be leavings him alone."

"That would be great, thanks Minnie," he said, trailing his finger along the spine of the books. Some of them popped out at him as a little creepy, and one of them seemed to be dripping something, but his finger finally came to rest at the book near the end of the shelve, which was called _A Beginners Guide to Potent Potions._ The title seemed simple enough, and the book was certainly one of the cleanest books there, so he pulled it out and flicked open to the index page.

_Pages 1-3: Introduction_

_Pages 3-6: Purchasing Your Ingredients_

_Pages 6-8: Handling Your Ingredients_

_Page 8: What Cauldron is Best?_

_Pages 9-10: What __NOT__ to Mix_

_POTION RECIPIES _

_Pages 11-14: Boil Cure_

_Pages 14-17: Plant Stimulant_

_Pages 17 -20: Flu Remedy _

Deciding to start at the beginning, Harry flicked over to the first page and began to read.

_Introduction._

_When it comes to mixing in the thick waters of potions, one must be careful..._

And so it went. Harry nestled down in a chair, absorbing all the information.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Two hours later, Minnie found him curled up in the chair with one or two decent books on the floor around him. She called him away from his books (forcefully, as he was quite reluctant to separate with his books) and dragged him into the kitchen for an early dinner.

As he walked into the room, he saw Celia and Tee sitting on some kitchen chairs, both looking fairly exhausted, but extremely satisfied. They turned around as they heard him walking in, and grinned tiredly as they saw his eyes light up just a little. It had only been three days since they picked him up, but the subtle differences were already apparent in him. He actually smiled when he talked, and his eyes had more life in them than when they first met him. He had more weight on him, even if marginally, due to the decent meal sizes, and he was warming up to them. While it disturbed them that he was probably so receptive due to lack of affection in his childhood, it definitely made him easier to manage.

Harry walked quickly up to them and gave Celia an awkward hug, mumbling into her that he missed her. She returned the hug, replying that she missed him too. Harry then walked over to Tee and hugged him too, giggling a bit as Tee tickled his sides. Stepping back, Harry grinned sheepishly at them and sat down at the counter.

"How was your day?" Harry said shyly. Even though he hadn't quite noticed it during the day, Harry realised that he actually had missed the presence of the two adults. It was only something he noticed now that they were here again, but it was something that made him a little happy. Having someone he missed, and that missed him back.

"It was pretty good for both of us, I think," Tee said tiredly, rubbing his face. Both of them were sipping cups of coffee that Minnie had popped in appreciatively.

"Yes, I agree with that. I also have very exciting news for you..." Celia said. They both turned to fully face him, and gave wry grins to each other.

"I got a job!" Celia cried, and Tee clapped happily. Harry cheered happily too, not too sure of what he was doing, but happy for her either way.

"And I found you a tutor! And some really good stuff to help teach you stuff as well!" Tee cheered as well. Harry cheered again at this and Celia just chuckled happily.

"That's really cool!" Harry piped, eager to learn as much about the fascinating world he had been shown. "What kind of job is it Celia?"

"I cant technically tell you, as my job requires secrecy, but from that description alone, most people should be able to guess it. It's in the Ministry," she added mysteriously.

"Oh alright then," Harry said simply, smiling at her. Celia seemed slightly put out that Harry wasn't drawn into it by her secret job, but smiled back all the same.

Clapping his hands together loudly, Tee rubbed his palms together eagerly.

"Now. Where's my dinner at? I'm absolutely starving. Havent eaten all day."

Minnie popped in at that exact moment with three plates of homemade pizza. Tee whooped loudly, and dug straight into it. Celia and Harry, having some self-control, sat down politely, before smashing their faces with the delicious meal.

"MMM..." Tee moaned, his mouth full of pizza, "You've mreally outdone yoursmelf Mmminnie!" The elf in question blushed humbly before popping out.

As Tee distracted himself with his food, Celia turned to Harry.

"So Harry, how was your first day in our house? I hope those two girls treated you well."

Grinning madly, Harry then gave the two a full description of his day, not leaving out a single bit. But when he came to the bit about the letter from Dumbledore, he faltered a bit.

"Harry?" Celia asked, noticing his loss for words.

"Oh, yeah.. Um, something really weird happened today as well. There was like, a bird? And it flew in through the window and it had a letter with it... is that normal?"

"Hahahahahah," they chuckled merrily, having forgotten to warn Harry about wizarding post.

"Yes, that's completely normal. Rather than having letters lost in the mail and that kind of thing, wizards use owls or other birds to deliver their post. It's much more reliable than the Muggle post system."

Feeling ashamed of his lack of knowledge, Harry blushed a little.

"But you said it had a letter?" Celia pushed, trying to lessen his embarrassment.

Smiling gratefully at her, he continued.

"Yes, some fellow called Albus Dumbledore sent it to me, talking about how I should return to my relatives house as they are 'concerned about my whereabouts'." He then showed the letter to them, and watched as their faces slowly turned red.

"Harry, don't you dare listen to the absolute _codger! _He is a manipulative lying man who needs to learn a _bloody lesson and keep his nose out of your business!_ If he knew what your relatives did, I bet he wouldn't dare..." Tee said furiously, cracking his knuckles menacingly.

Celia nodded furiously, completely agreeing with Tee. She was outraged that the man would try and send Harry back to that house, but also curious as to how the owl got through the wards.

"He's absolutely right Harry, we all know that you have suffered in that house, and Merlin, I am not letting you back there unless it is necessary!"

"I thought it was kind of thoughtful... You know, he's checking up on me at least..." Harry said quietly, fingering the letter.

"Harry!"

"That man had 8 years to check up on you! Only once you run away does he bother to stick his overly long nose in your direction, and that's only because you stopped playing his games!"

Calming down, Celia pulled Harry into a soft hug, pressing him into her.

"Darling," she sighed heavily, "We know that he probably seems like a very caring man at the moment, but that's what he wants you to think. We speak from experience when we say that, that man is nothing but a meddling manipulative old crook. Please trust us on this. Don't send him a letter back," she whispered into his hair. Harry nodded submissively. He still believed that the headmaster wasn't all bad, and that Celia and Tee must have just had a bad experience with him in the past, despite what the adults had said.

_I'll wait until I get to Hogwarts myself. Then I'll decide on what I think of him. Maybe I just wont talk about him around Celia and Tee..._ Harry thought, not wanting to bring up the topic again. To be honest, he still considered himself a visitor in their house, and didn't want to upset them and get kicked out.

"So!" Harry coughed loudly, pulling away from Celia. "When can I start to learn magic?"

Thankful for the topic change, both adults burst into words, eager to start teaching him.

"Well Harry-"

"Now I've got this plan-"

They said at the same time, before catching themselves and grinning sheepishly at the other. Celia indicated for Tee to go first, and so he did.

"Hehem. As I said previously, I have managed to arrange for a tutor to help you along in the subjects where Celia and myself are more... inept, I suppose you could say. These will be things like History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, and some theory work. The tutor's name is Argon, and he has sworn secrecy about your identity." Harry gave a grateful smile at this, which Tee softly chuckled at.

"Now, he says that he shall be starting in around three days, and just has to sort out his living conditions, as they are rather unstable at the moment."

"Oh Tee, darling," Celia interrupted waving her hands around, "Why don't you just lend him a spare room in our house? I get the impression that he will be spending an awful lot of time here anyways, so why not just... live here?"

"Ah, yes, I did offer him one of our rooms, but he politely declined. Says he's got a pregnant wife that needs to be looked after. Very hands on." Tee winked, nudging Celia in the ribs. The woman just scowled at him, giving him a solid glare.

Coughing rather loudly, Tee recovered from the withering stare.

"Ehem, yes. So, I think that's about it when it comes to the new tutor. In other news, I said I found some awesome new materials to help you train, and I did! I'm so excited about this Harry, its really quite cool," he said, pulling something small out of his pocket.

It was a small parcel wrapped in brown tissue paper. Under the paper, was a small doll with a tiny stick in its hand. It was a very blank figure, with no face or clothes. It's body was made of lovely wood, and there was something scribbled.

Tee stood it up on the floor and cried _engorgio. _The small figure immediately started growing, and growing, until it was the size of a fully grown man. The tiny stick was now a fake wand, and the figure was standing impressively strong. On it's lovely wooden chest was a golden inscription reading, _Dilly's Dummies: Training Dummies for Dummies. _

"_Wow_!" Harry cried, enthralled with the magic he had just seen, and the lovely dummy in front of him.

"Great, isnt he?" Tee said proudly. "I bought him for half price too. The fella said he was an out of date model, and no one was gonna buy him. Proved him wrong, di'en I?" He said smugly, going over the dummy with his eyes.

"What's he do though?" Celia asked curiously, quite intrigued by the figure.

"Aha, let me tell you. This is the best bit, as it is quite nifty." Tee drew out his wand from his sleeve, and promptly cast a spell at the dummy. To Harry's amazement, the dummy moved quite lively, and whipped its arm out infront of the spell. The bright blue light of Tee's spell bounced back off the dummy and hit something behind them.

"WOAH!" Harry cried out again, overly impressed now.

"Yeah," Tee said, tucking away his wand. "He's brilliant, isn't he? Deflects, dodges, and even casts low powered spells. Perfect for training up lil 'uns like you Harry!"

"Thank you Tee, it's brilliant!" Harry squawked breathlessly.

"Ah, my little friend, it was a pleasure. You must promise me though, that you will use him every day, so that you can train up real nice, just like me," Tee said, with a cheeky glint in his eyes.

"Oh, he'll need more than a dummy to reach your level, Tee," Celia added, giving the man a teasing look. Tee's mouth fell open with shock.

"Was that a compliment? Did you hear that Harry, I think that was a compliment! From _the_ Celia lovely-Lovegood herself! That's unheard of, I hope you realise!"

Clutching at their guts, they all laughed loudly at this, except for Celia, who just smirked in a self-satisfied sort of way.

"Ah, well that's one for the books," Tee sighed, amazed that she actually said he was good at something.

"Awh, Tee, you're good at things. Just... select things..." she said, teasing again.

Tee playfully batted at her arm, pretending to be bashful.

"Oh, you flatter me so Celia, it's too much."

Shaking his head at their madness, Harry giggled a little. It was nice to have some light conversation.

"_Anyways_," Celia said pointedly, giving Tee a playful look that told him that the teasing was over. "Back to Harry's training. We will train you everyday day of the week except for the weekend, so you don't drop the school pattern. I shall train you in charms, transfiguration, and potions, and Tee will train you in defence against the dark arts, healing spells, and basically anything else you want. We can add subjects if you want, but obviously only things we know and things that are legal, so soul magics and stuff are out," she said jokingly as Harry sarcastically moaned.

"And because we don't really want you to be only learned in magic, we will give you regular lessons every second week, so stuff like maths and English. So every week we will swap between magical and standard, so you aren't lacking in general knowledge."

"Awwww, I was hoping I could drop maths," Harry complained. It was the only thing he wouldn't miss leaving the Muggle world behind, as he found he just couldn't grasp certain concepts.

"Ahaha, unfortunately for you, we did not forget that little subject," Tee said booping Harry's nose affectionately. "Don't you worry though, I totally hate the subject too. We can hate it together." Smiling brightly at him, Tee laughed at the heavy frown on Harry's face.

"Ah, Harry its only maths. And once we get through some essential stuff, if you _really_ want, we can drop it. But that's only after we get through algebra and stuff."

"Fine. I'll do the bloody maths."

Lightly pinching him, Celia reprimanded his language.

"Harry, please choose your words differently."

"Hmph." Was all Harry said. Shaking her head at his stubbornness, Celia stood up from her seat and called Minnie, who quickly appeared and took their dinner plates. In their places, three plates of banana sundaes appeared.

"I think that's all we have at the moment, in terms of your training Harry. Do you have any questions?" She said, watching Tee smear his face with the ice-cream from his sundae, having already dug in.

Licking his lips of the dessert, Harry shook his head. He moaned appreciatively at the dessert, and giggled loudly.

"Ah, I guess I'm not going to get anything out of you two until you finish your meals," Celia sighed in submission. With that, she too dove into the dessert, glad that they had Minnie to look after them.


End file.
